COLUMBIA, MO — Picnic tables and a small basketball court sit empty at Pershing Park, and the grassy area is now populated not with patients and doctors, but with bulldozers and construction equipment as Truman Veterans Hospital prepares to erect its newest addition.
The project of a World War I veteran who became a hospital volunteer, the patch of green space behind the veterans hospital has been used by patients and doctors as recreation space since the hospital opened in 1972.
Nearly 30 years later, after a legal battle that held up construction for four months, the veterans hospital is set to break ground in Pershing Park on Aug. 10 beginning construction on a $25 million project — its biggest ever.
Conceived in 2004, the project includes a 27,000-square-foot addition to the existing building and 12,000 square feet of renovations.
The new building will house an operating room suite with five operating rooms, two of which will be general purpose, two dedicated to heart surgery and one dedicated to special procedures. The old operating rooms will be gutted to house the new post-anesthesia care unit and pre-operation room, said Nathan Witt, chief volunteer officer for the hospital.
Click here to read full article
SOURCE: Columbia Missourian
