Steven Zweig, chair of the School of Medicine's Department of Family and Community Medicine, speaks Tuesday at the ribbon-cutting for the South Providence Medical Park building in south Columbia. Photo by Justin Kelley.
A ribbon-cutting was held Tuesday for the unveiling of the MU Health Care's South Providence Medical Park building, the new home for three outpatient clinics, including family medicine, general pediatrics and psychiatry. The medical park building, at 551 E. Southampton Drive in south Columbia, is designed with the needs of patients and their families in mind. About 500 guests were in attendance.
“We believe excellence in health care happens when medical teams partner with patients and their families,” Hal Williamson, executive vice chancellor for health affairs, said at the event.
“From the start of this project, we sought input from patients and families on the design of this building,” he continued. “Our goal is to offer comprehensive care for the whole family, from toddlers to adolescents to adults and seniors in one convenient location.”
The building features a family medicine clinic with 48 exam rooms staffed by more than 60 physicians from the medical school’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, ranked for 21 years in the top 10 of family medicine programs by U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools. Mizzou Pharmacy offers drive-thru services, a laboratory, radiology and imaging services, and Mizzou Urgent Care, which relocated from University Physicians Medical Building.
Set on 25 acres, the medical park building features an outpatient clinic for children staffed by about 30 pediatricians from the Department of Child Health. Each of the 30 exam rooms in the general pediatrics clinic has height, weight and vital sign measurement stations. A third clinic staffed by 20 psychiatrists, therapists and psychologists offers 15 rooms for outpatient behavioral health clients and two group therapy rooms.
The building houses three outpatient clinics, including family medicine, general pediatrics and psychiatry. Photo by Justin Kelley.
By combining multiple medical services in one location, the medical park building allows MU Health Care medical teams to offer comprehensive care to patients and their families, Williamson said.
Along with Williamson, other administrators in attendance at the ribbon-cutting were medical school Dean Patrick Delafontaine, CEO and COO of MU Health Care Mitch Wasden, and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin.
Loftin spoke of MU’s core responsibility as a land-grant university of serving Missourians through education, research and health care. “Opening this facility moves us forward on all those fronts,” Loftin said.
The South Providence Medical Park site will serve Missourians “as a source for clinical care of the whole person and the whole family, a training site for tomorrow’s health care professionals, and also as a place where we can translate our researchers’ discoveries into new medical treatments,” Loftin said.
The medical park building is expected to be approved by the Green Building Council as a Leadership in Energy & Design (LEED) silver-level certified building. Construction on the clinic began in June 2013.