KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A $70 million expansion at Truman Medical Center will allow for primary care services to be offered at a new location.
University Health 2, located at 2211 Charlotte Street, sits across the street from the original University Health Building and will house TMC’s Women’s Health Center, as well as dialysis and other services.
President and CEO Charlie Shields said the addition “represents a huge leap forward” in the hospital system’s ability to accommodate both patients and, as an academic medical center, its learners.
"These clinics formerly were in the main hospital building, which was built in 1976,” Shields said. “They were right in the middle of the building and a little hard to get to. Not exactly patient friendly from a parking standpoint. This new building, we have it attached by a skywalk to a brand new four level parking garage.”
The need for primary care, according to Shields, will be increasingly important as COVID-19 survivors battle long-term effects of the virus, many of which still are unknown.
"One of the best ways to deal with these issues related to people who had COVID, or who are having COVID issues, is a strong relationship with primary care providers to provide that guidance and offer assessment for all of those things and challenges that came out of that COVID experience," Shields said.
Additionally, relocating primary care services to the new building allows TMC to expand its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Construction began this week, according to Shields.
"That will be a new, 28-bed, state-of-the-art NICU. Our current one is 19 beds in a very tight space,” Shields said. “It's great care, but not enough space for families to be with their newborns. So, this new space will give us a lot more room.”
The NICU expansion is expected to take at least a year to finish.
The new building project was underway and budgeted for before the pandemic began in March.
