Mercy Springfield prepares to break ground on southside emergency department

Susan Szuch, Springfield News-Leader
·2 min read

Mercy Hospital Springfield will break ground Oc.t. 6 on an emergency department addition near its orthopedic hospital near U.S. 65 and Evans Road.

According to the press release, the emergency department addition is meant "to improve access to critical care — especially for patients living in Ozark, Nixa and the south side of Springfield."

The expansion of the 3050 E. Riverbluff Road facility is expected to be completed in 2025.

During a Springfield Business Journal event in July, president of Mercy Springfield Communities David Argueta announced plans for a new emergency department near the orthopedic hospital.

"It'll be able to take care of anything that you need to take care of in the emergency department" and be a Level 3 or Level 4 facility, Argueta told SBJ during a 12 People You Need to Know event. "We're excited to bring additional services."

More: Mercy Hospital Springfield re-opens lactation clinic after three years

According to StatPearls, a database of clinical topics in health care, Level 1 facilities provide the highest level of care for a patient after a traumatic injury. Level 3 is defined as a center that can assess, manage and stabilize trauma patients, and level 4 can provide immediate management of patients before transferring them to a higher level facility.

The facility will be built on land already owned by Mercy.

At the time of the interview, Mercy spokesperson Ettie Berneking could only confirm that Mercy was "in the preliminary stages of expanding services in southern Springfield with a comprehensive Emergency Department" on the Mercy Orthopedic Springfield campus and that it was scheduled to open "in late 2024/early 2025."

Other than the date and time of the groundbreaking and planned completion date, Mercy did not release additional information about the new ER on Friday.

Susan Szuch is the health and public policy reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Mercy to break ground Friday on south Springfield emergency dept.