>Page A3 jump from 10-01-14 A1 "Heartland: " "Shiloh welcomes healthcare facility" >Page A3 jump from 10-01-14 "Memorial: " "Memorial in Shiloh 'Tops Out'"

1. currently has 19 locations,
which house 25 providers,
including 16 physicians,
three nurse midwives, and
six nurse practitioners,”
Arell-Martinez said. “The
practice has enjoyed 13
years as an independent
practice.”
Village Engineer Norm
Etling attended the open
house event offered after
the ribbon cutting and said
the process from start to
finish involving permits
and building code require-
ments went smoothly for
the developer.
“There weren’t any chal-
lenges during the building
phase of the facility other
than weather not cooperat-
ing,” Mike Middendorf, of
Middendorf and Reuss
Construction, said. “It took
us about three and a half
months to build.”
Schifano said the new
facility will be the result of
consolidation of his
O’Fallon and Belleville
offices, and it will be locat-
ed off Fortune Boulevard,
close to Green Mount
Crossing Shopping Center.
“We decided to consoli-
date those offices as we
anticipate two to three
years down the road, as a
majority of our patients are
going to want to deliver at
the new Memorial Hospital
East (coming to Shiloh
soon) or the projected new
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital
(possibly coming to
O’Fallon in the future)
because our new facility
will be in close proximity
to the O’Fallon-Shiloh hos-
pitals versus the Belleville
locations,” Schifano said.
Schifano said he doesn’t
expect any lag time in
patient care for those who
are patients at the existing
offices in O’Fallon or
Belleville, and he estimates
on any given day around 25
employees will be working
at the new facility.
“The building is planned
to be about 9,000 square
feet with 12 exam rooms,
three procedure rooms, and
at any given time four to
five practitioners will be
seeing patients,” Schifano
said. “So usually we will be
able to see around 100
patients a day without feel-
ing crowded.”
The new facility will be a
free-standing building for a
reason, according to
Schifano.
“Our patients like to park
in front of our office(s) and
walk right in. Basically our
pregnant patients, too,
don’t like to park and have
to walk far across a parking
lot and then get in an eleva-
tor just to reach their prac-
titioner’s office.”
According to Schifano,
keeping his patients happy
is one of his priorities,
which he said has worked
in the past with his other
Southern Illinois offices
that have free-standing
clinics.
“Among our 16 locations
throughout Southern
Illinois, we have facilities
in Mt. Vernon and Marion,
Ill., both of which are just
down the street from new
area hospitals, which is
why we chose the location
we did in Shiloh,” Schifano
said. “We also have stadi-
um seating viewing for our
two ultrasound rooms, so
patients are able to have as
many friends and family
present for those special
revealing moments, which
you don’t find elsewhere.”
A rarity in the world of
prenatal care, Ashton
Stephens, marketing direc-
tor of HWHC, said HWHC
offers free ultrasounds at
every prenatal appoint-
ment.
The ultrasound will not
be billed to insurance and
is offered free to all obstet-
ric patients. The ultrasound
is performed by the
provider and gives the
expecting mothers a peace
of mind at each visit.
Nurse Practitioner
Ashley Wittler said another
great addition to the prac-
tice is the USBytes pro-
gram that was introduced
this past year.
Each expectant mother
receives the prenatal
bracelet as a gift. These
bracelets contain a virtual
world of prenatal care
information, Wittler
explained.
“We do our best to be as
accommodating and as
flexible as possible,”
Wittler said.
“The USBytes serves a
dual purpose—for one, it
provides patients with the
ability to share all of the
pictures with family and
friends easily; and, second-
ly, we encourage our
patients to wear them or
keep them in their purse, so
when you’re traveling,
heaven forbid, but if there
were to be a car accident or
something else where you
needed to be transported to
an emergency room for
whatever reason, you
would have immediate
access right there to all of
your medical records, test
results and medications
from the pregnancy.”
Wittler went on, “And,
with the way the world is
now, people travel all the
time, so essentially it
allows immediate care for
you and your baby no mat-
ter what the circumstances
or location is.”
Wittler explained many
patients travel to receive
HWHC care from as far as
Carbondale, Chester and
Sparta, so USBytes pro-
gram is forecasted by
HWHC providers to be a
growing, integral element
of its practice down the
line.
The software includes
the patient’s ultrasound
images, 4D video of the
baby and all password pro-
tected medical records per-
taining to the pregnancy.
Security is not a risk with
the bracelet as the files on
the drive are health insur-
ance portability accounta-
bility act (HIPAA) compli-
ant.
Schifano said the cost of
the building alone is in the
ballpark of $1.5 million,
and with the land included
will come to a grand total
of approximately a $1.8
million project.
Hours at Heartland
Women’s Healthcare are 9
a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-
Friday. For more informa-
tion, visit
www.ilobgyn.com or call
1-877-ILOBGYN (456-
2496) or visit HWHC
Facebook page.
rkirsch@bnd.com
O’FALLON PROGRESS NEWS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2014 PAGE A3
is to have the building com-
pletely enclosed by the end
of the year.”
The $124 million proj-
ect, including site prepara-
tion, design, planning, per-
mits and building, will be a
94-bed, 207,212 square
foot hospital with 72 med-
ical/surgical rooms, six
ICU rooms, 16 labor, deliv-
ery and recovery/postpar-
tum rooms, two C-Section
rooms, four operating
rooms, two cath labs, 12
ED stations, six private
rooms and six observation
rooms.
Hospital services will
include: emergency depart-
ment, medical and surgical
services (except open heart
and neurosurgery), inten-
sive care unit, obstetrics
and gynecology, diagnos-
tics for lab, x-ray and respi-
ratory needs, cardiac cath
and diagnostic cardiology,
GI and Endoscopy, rehabil-
itation and physical therapy
and physician offices too.
“This is where we will
define our new private
patient suites, diagnostic
areas, surgical suites, a
24/7/365 fully staffed
Emergency Department,
and physician office space.
In addition, the necessary
preparations for the tech-
nologies that will ensure
access to the latest medical
advancements and services
will take place,” Mark
Turner, president and CEO
of Memorial Hospital, said
recently.
According to Holmes,
the interior build-out will
take most of 2015 and they
will take ownership of the
hospital sometime in early
December of 2015.
“The final move in will
take about 90 days and it is
our hope to see our first
patient in early April
2016,” Holmes added.
Echoing the words of
Holmes, Thomure also said
the Topping Out
Celebration was a huge
success.
“A crowd of over 100
attended this event to mark
the completion of the struc-
tural steel phase of the
project,” Thomure
explained.
“As we watch this proj-
ect move forward, I can’t
help but think about the
benefits that the Memorial
network will bring to this
region.”
Thomure went on to say,
“Our Belleville campus
will work in tandem with
the Shiloh campus to pro-
vide an integrated approach
to patient care. We are con-
fident patients will find
Memorial East second to
none in terms of the care
they receive.”
Other key milestones
include:
• 2008: Memorial Group
Inc. and Metro-East
Services Inc. acquire 94
acres of land at Frank Scott
Parkway and Cross Street
in Shiloh for future devel-
opment;
• April 1, 2011:
Memorial files Certificate
of Need with the Illinois
Health Facilities and
Services Review Board
(IHFSRB) to build
Memorial Hospital-East, a
94 all-private suite hospi-
tal;
• June 28, 2011: IHFSRB
unanimously approves
Memorial’s CON applica-
tion—making this only the
third new hospital project
approved by the state in
more than 20 years;
• March 2012: Ruth
Holmes, RN, named as
Administrator of Memorial
Hospital-East;
• March 9, 2014:
Dignitaries, religious lead-
ers, politicians and resi-
dents congregate for the
Land Dedication and
Groundbreaking ceremony
at 1404 Cross St.;
• Sept. 25, 2014: Topping
Out Celebration to mark
end of the structural steel
construction phase;
• Spring 2016: First
patient to be admitted.
For more information
v i s i t
www.MemHospEast.com.
rkirsch@bnd.com
CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1
Memorial: $124 million project will be a 94-bed, 207,212 square foot hospital in Shiloh
CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1
Heartland: Located off Fortune Boulevard, near Shiloh’s Greenmount Crossing Shopping Center
PROGRESS/Aaron Sudholt
The pine tree sits on top of the flag at the site of the new Memorial Hospital
East location in Shiloh. The tree had been placed earlier in the day.
Courtesy photo
Left, Shiloh Mayor Jim Vernier engages, right,
Darwin Miles, local developer in Shiloh and
O’Fallon and owner of Miles Properties in
O’Fallon, in a conversation about the ‘Medical
Mile,’ an unofficial name for the growth of medical
facilities along Interstates 64 and 44 spanning
from Illinois to Missouri.