As many of you may know, Marshalltown Medical & Surgical Center (MMSC)will be building a 75,000-square-foot Outpatient Center as Phase 1 of a 3 phase hospital replacement. The new facility will be located on 30 acres at the southwest corner of the intersection of Highway 30 and Highway14, across from Marshalltown Community College. The following services will move to the new facility in Phase 1; •Outpatient Surgery •Imaging Services •Wound Care •Rehabilitation Services •Urgent Care •Outpatient Laboratory The site is being master-planned for the eventual relocation of the inpatient units, emergency department, cardiac cath lab, and physician offices. In early 2010 MMSCinitiated a strategic planning process to identify its strategic priorities for the future. A Strategic Planning Group was established and consisted of community board members, administrators, medical staff and employees. That group presented its recommendations to the MMSC Board of Trustees for their review and approval. At its December 2010 meeting, the MMSC Board approved the Strategic Plan for 2010-2014. Next, a Facilities Steering Committee was formedand given the charge to develop a Strategic Facility Master Plan. This committee consisted of MMSC board members, MMSC Foundation board members, administrators, medical staff, employees, other community medical providers, and a contracted architectural firm. This plan was developed from the assessment of our current facility, a healthcare market analysis, financial considerations and patient and workflow efficiencies. A Facility Condition Assessment was completed that consisted of a review of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, roofing, envelope and waterproofing and energy use. The assessment determined that MMSC would need to spend $30 million to address infrastructure issues in the existing buildings. Those improvements, while necessary, would not improve patient care or enhance the patient or provider experience, which are major areas of focus for this project. The Facilities Steering Committee’s recommendation to the MMSC Board of Trustees was to pursue a full off-site replacement of the current hospital campus. Many alternatives were investigated during the process including: •Onsite and reuse some existing buildings and replace others. •Onsite full replacement. •Closing a main street and reusing some existing building and replace others. At one point in the process twelve different concepts were investigated and considered. All the above alternatives were not as feasible as a phased off-site replacement due to lower operational efficiencies; current site is too small for expansion, disruption during construction years, existing infrastructure expenses, and extensive timelines due to street closings and other city and county considerations. Provider recruitment is another important element to consider. With limited providers available, modern facilities are an important part of our recruitment efforts. For the current facility, MMSC will spear-head a visioning process in which a Community Advisory Task Force (CATF) will be established and be integrally involved to research and plan for the best future use of the downtown MMSC property and grounds.   You may also be interested to know that MMSC does not receive any city or county tax dollars. MMSC is a private, community owned hospital and governed by a broad representation of community members and has no debt as a corporation. MMSC will be working with a developer on the project and make payments on the facility out of the operating revenue of the hospital. The cost of healthcare will not go up as a direct result of the building project. This new facility will allow MMSC to improve patient and provider experiences by utilizing a modern, efficient facility designed for today’s healthcare needs. Groundbreaking for Phase 1 will be scheduled for early to mid-March with an expected completion date in the Spring of 2015.