Ingrams August 2023

DESTINATION MISSOURI REASONS TO CHOOSE

Healthcare and Community Services

SEISMIC SHIFTS IN HEALTH-CARE INFRASTRUCTURE BODE WELL FOR MISSOURI RESIDENTS.

Missouri has long been able to tout world-class health-care delivery. Over the past year, that world has been rocked by two major developments: One from in side the state’s borders and one adjacent. Most recently was the announcement that two of the state’s most prominent providers—BJC Healthcare in St. Louis and Saint Luke’s Health System in Kansas City—would join forces as a single, $10 billion entity providing statewide services for 6.17 million residents. The second development carries a more regional impact. Adjacent to the state line in Kansas City, The Univer sity of Kansas Cancer Center completed a two-decade journey that produced its prized designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center, a level that the National Cancer Institutes have granted to fewer than 60 organizations in 36 states. It’s the only comprehensive-level cen ter in the Kansas City market and one of only two in the Missouri-Kansas region. The other? By happy coincidence, this road leads back to St. Louis and BJC’s Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center. Executives tied to both developments say that each will help elevate care and provide more focused research, yielding benefits that go beyond patient care and treatment, extending to the commercial ization of drugs and medical devices. U.S. News & World Report , in its annual rankings of the best hospitals in America, routinely includes BJC’s Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis among the Top 15, including health-care giants such as the Mayo Clinic, Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, and Mass General in Boston. While Barnes-Jewish stood out as the highest-ranking Missouri hospital, it had plenty of company in the magazine’s honor roll. Its new partner in Kansas City is recognized in the Top 25 for cardiology and heart surgery, as well as high-per forming status in five specialties and 13 procedures. Children’s Mercy Kansas City also has a long history with the magazine’s ranking of pediatric hospitals in the U.S.,

having earned recognition in 10 separate care categories (with at least three Top 20 finishes) and a high-water ranking of No. 4 nationally in pediatric nephrology. Combined, Missouri’s 83 acute-care hospitals admitted nearly 660,000 pa tients and produced 3.4 million patient days in 2022, generating more than $90.2 billion in patient revenue. They also ac

11,100 physicians and nearly 82,000 li censed nurses. Among those medical facilities, the granddaddy of them all is Barnes-Jewish, the crown jewel in the BJC Health Care system and the biggest facility in the state, with 1,274 staffed beds. It has dominated health care delivery in St. Louis and the surrounding region since it was formed in

MAGNETIC ATTRACTION | Demonstrating the power of academic research to attract investment, the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Institute opened in Columbia in 2021 at a cost of $214 million. In less than a year, it had attracted more than $100 million in new research funding for the University of Missouri.

counted for more than 170,000 employ ees during the pandemic year of 2020, a figure that is expected to rise as the work force reductions of that era begin to ebb. Though straddled by two large health care markets that draw from multiple states, Missouri has numerous regional and community hospitals, especially in the next-tier markets of Springfield and the Columbia-Jefferson City corridor, as well as sub-markets that include St. Jo seph, Joplin, and Cape Girardeau. The seven largest metropolitan ar eas are home to nearly 72 percent of the state’s residents, ensuring a significant majority of the population has access to acute care within their MSA, including

1966 with the merger of Barnes Hospital and Jewish Hospital. BJC is just one pillar in a 186-acre health-care complex that covers 18 acres of Downtown St. Louis, an area desig nated the Washington University Medi cal Campus, and includes the Siteman Cancer Center and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Three major faith-based systems also stand out in Missouri health care: As cension, with more than 150 hospitals nationwide; Ohio-based Mercy, which operates 25 hospitals (12 in Missouri) across a four-state region; and the Sisters of Saint Mary’s SSM Health, with 23 hos pitals in Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma and

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