CoxHealth plans $10M project

CoxHealth is planning a multimillion-dollar investment at its south Springfield hospital.

A $10 million project is slated to add 36 private recovery rooms to the third floor of Cox South's tower, according to a news release.

CoxHealth left room for additional infill in the $130 million tower that was completed in 2015. Recently, the fifth floor of the tower was converted into a COVID-19 unit.

Steve Edwards, the health care system's president and CEO, said the third-floor project would help meet needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It initially will be used as a COVID-19 unit, depending on the need, but it also sets the hospital up in the future to convert to an all private-bed model

“As we work our way through this tunnel, we expect volume to ramp up high,” Edwards said in the release. “Convalescing patients will consume resources, and we will still have heart attacks and strokes and other patients who we will need space to care for.

“We hope we are wrong, but we see COVID as a chronic pandemic for a while. There is a theory that there will be lots of waves with this. Some may be big ones.”

Scheduled for completion in November, the project is a candidate for possible Federal Emergency Management Agency funding, according to the release.

CoxHealth also announced its board approved an update to inpatient psychiatric service units at Cox North. The project calls on expanding the pediatric unit and improving the adult inpatient unit. CoxHealth spokesperson Kaitlyn McConnell said the project would cost roughly $1 million.