University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia has begun construction of its $242 million women's and children's pavilion, according to local news station KOMU.
Construction of the pavilion at its main campus in Columbia began March 22; it's expected to open the summer of 2024.
The pavilion is part of the academic health system's plan to consolidate services from its Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Columbia to one centralized clinical campus.
"Bringing everybody back together on one campus really provides a lot of opportunities that you just lose when you're a few miles apart, in terms of sort of intentional collision and cross-collaboration and cross coverage," Keri Simon, interim COO of University of Missouri Health Care, told KOMU. "When you're all riding the same elevators walking the same halls, having lunch in the same places, there's just a lot of collaboration. That happens, but that's just hard to do when you're in two different places."
University of Missouri Health Care received approval from the board in 2019 for the consolidation project.