Moore Hospital

[Patrick]

Well, the much anticipated opening of Moore Hospital, will be delayed.
But, sounds like it will be worth the wait, at least for the local economy in Moore.

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"Moore anticipating hospital opening


By Ty McMahan
The Oklahoman

MOORE - Weather and a delay in materials are factors that have slowed construction of the Moore Medical Center, which was scheduled to open in December.
The hospital now is scheduled to open in May, said Scott Hill, senior vice president of The Schuster Group, the company building the hospital.

The completion date for the project has been pushed back several times.

"We were being optimistic when we were thinking we could get it open by February," Hill said.

He said once construction is finished, it will take about 30 days to move in, complete employee training and meet all other compliance issues.

Among the services to be offered by the medical center, 700 SW 5, will be a 24-hour emergency room and an intensive care unit. Moore's last hospital closed in 1993. The closest hospitals are Norman Regional Hospital and Integris Southwest Medical Center in south Oklahoma City.

Mayor Glenn Lewis said bringing a hospital back to the city was one of his main goals.

"This will be one of the things I will be most proud of," he said.

Lewis said residents are anxious for the hospital to be completed.

"It seems everybody in town is saying, 'It's almost done,'" Lewis said. "We're all ready."

Sarah Schuster, director of marketing for The Schuster Group, said the company issued 7,200 surveys within the Moore community to get opinions on the project.

"We've been given a lot of praise for taking on this project," Schuster said. "The community has really opened their arms to us."

The 45-bed hospital is being constructed on a 10-acre site at Telephone Road and SW 5. It is expected to have a staff of about 300.

Lewis said the hospital will be an economic boost for the city.

"It's not just the citizens who are excited," Lewis said. "The businesses are getting excited about 300 new employees that will be here to spend money."

[Patrick]

By the way, here's a link to the Schuster Group, the company building Moore Medical Center.

http://www.tsgincorporated.com/

[Patrick]

Another article about the new hospital:

"Schuster Group has eyes on Moore


Delivering babies isn't in the job description, but its a nice perk for Scott Hill, 50, senior vice president of The Schuster Group in Oklahoma City.

Hill doesn't help actually deliver babies, but the company he works for buys and manages rural Oklahoma hospitals, allowing babies to be born in facilities that would otherwise not exist.

In Moore, for instance, there isn't a hospital, so expectant mothers go either to Norman Regional Hospital or Integris Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City.

The Schuster Group, however, is building a $50 million, 46-bed medical center in Moore that's expected to open next March. The hospital will be owned by a physicians group and community leaders along with The Schuster Group.

"This will be a tremendous asset to that community. We're absolutely helping people and that's a pretty neat feeling," Hill said.

In other cities, such as Seminole, Tishomingo and Anadarko, The Schuster Group has either purchased hospitals or agreed to manage them, hoping to turn those hospitals back to profitability.

In Stroud, the group is planning to start construction next June on a $20 million, 40- to 45-bed acute care hospital on the site of the former Tanger Outlet Mall.

The group recently assumed management of the Prague hospital and is negotiating to purchase it. It's looking also at facilities in Cushing, Edmond, Weatherford, Chickasha, and Shawnee as well as cities in surrounding states.

"The No. 1 problem for hospitals in rural areas is they try to provide too many services," Hill said. "You can't provide heart, orthopedics and cancer care. In rural America there's not enough dollars to provide them all."

Yet if the demographics support the need for a service, Hill said The Schuster Group will try to provide it.

In Seminole, for example, a baby had not been born in a hospital there for 16 years, but the group assessed a need for an obstetrician-gynecologist and brought in one. An orthopedic doctor also was added. Now 15 to 30 surgeries a year now are being done at the hospital, Hill said.

In other cases, services such as oncology or cardiology can be provided on a rotating basis as needed.

Another goal of the group, is to surround rural hospitals with other services such as pharmacy, eye care, home care and hospice, Hill said, and to reduce operations costs by streamlining administrative functions.

In many communities registered nurses were placed in charge of administration as clinical coordinators.

"In Seminole, we were able to eliminate $1 million a year in overhead by eliminating layers of management," Hill said.

Though some jobs might be lost, others are saved or added when the hospital is saved.

In communities such as Moore, about 200 jobs will be added, he said.

City leaders said they are pleased with The Schuster Group's efforts.

Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis said the city had worked with eight other companies or groups before The Schuster Group contracted to build the hospital.

"We're probably the only city of 50,000 people without a hospital," Lewis said. "This will give people a sense of well-being. And so far, they've been excellent to work with. They keep us informed."

Prague City Manager Jim Thompson said the city is happy to sell the hospital to The Schuster Group.

"Small communities such as Prague are financially unable to finance and support a hospital, yet our main goal is to maintain health care facilities for our city," he said.

Thompson said he visited with other communities where The Schuster Group operates and heard nothing but praise for the company's work.

"The only concern might be what would happen in five to 10 years if they buy the hospital and then leave. But some things you just have to take on faith."

The Schuster Group now owns or operates six rural hospitals with plans to have 10 to 15 within five years. They count about 1,100 employees including staff at their hospitals.

The company's revenue has grown from $8 million gross a year to $100 million gross a year in the last five years, Hill said.

- By Tricia Pemberton
The Oklahoman"