Ribbon cutting held for SoutheastHEALTH multi-use facility renovation

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – SoutheastHEALTH held a ribbon cutting Thursday morning for a multi-use facility located directly across from the hospital in Cape Girardeau.

The healthcare system just completed a sweeping renovation of 1708 Lacey.

The four-story building will house several services, including expanded quarters for its rapidly growing Reference Laboratory Services.

The renovation is a part of a multimillion project that is the largest in the history of SoutheastHEALTH.

The $30 million Southeast Behavioral Hospital in Cape Girardeau was completed in March 2021. The $25 million Southeast Center for Integrated Services located on South Mount Auburn Road opened in January 2023. It is home to Southeast Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Southeast Women’s Integrated Health and Southeast Breast Health.

Current work underway includes $50 million for renovations of 1708 Lacey, renovation of the Emergency Services Department and conversion of semi-private rooms to private rooms within the hospital. Planning is under way for a $20 million Ambulatory Surgery Center on the West Campus featuring surgical suites for specialties that include orthopedics, general surgery, women’s health and more.

“With the opening of 1708 Lacey, we are continuing to grow to serve our region in the best possible way. We are positioned to provide a wide range of both clinical and non-clinical services well into the future,” said SoutheastHEALTH President and CEO Ken Bateman.

SoutheastHEALTH will continue to identify new opportunities that will benefit patients and the region.

Services located in 1708 Lacey include, on the ground level, MRI Services, Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab and Facilities Management. Southeast Reference Lab Services occupies the first floor, Human Resources and Education Services are located on the second floor and a Training Center is located on the third floor. That space includes a classroom for new employee orientation or other large events and a skills lab.

Southeast established a partnership with Abbott Laboratories in 2020 to bring COVID testing capabilities to the region, allowing Southeast to continue to treat patients during the pandemic, according to Southeast Reference Lab Services Lauren Thomas, executive director of Laboratory and Outreach Services at SoutheastHEALTH.

Since 2020, Southeast has upgraded instrumentation to Abbott’s newer technology, the Alinity. This is a family of instruments that, for SoutheastHEALTH, includes instruments for Chemistry, Immunoassay, and Molecular testing. Their partnership encompasses laboratories at Southeast Hospital, Southeast Cancer Center, Southeast Health Center of Stoddard County and now the Southeast Reference Lab.

Thomas said that while a hospital lab performs initial general patient testing, a reference lab has an expanded test menu capable of testing lab samples sent from another lab or institution.

The Reference lab will include new software program, most recently with the Abbott AlinilQ AMS, Indexor, and Inventory Management.

Drinda Swanson, district manager, Chicago District, Abbott Core Diagnostics, explained that these digital health solutions allow the lab to better manage flow of data through the entire laboratory process, leading to standardized decision making, a reduction in errors by automating manual processes, an alleviation on the impact of staff shortages and a reduction in operational costs.

“The growth we have experienced with our Outreach Lab has been nothing short of phenomenal and we recognized the need to establish Reference Lab services,” Thomas added.

Southeast currently works with 238 outreach lab sites locally and more than 100 client locations extending to 17 states throughout the nation.

“With these newest technologies, we now have the ability to support additional growth to expand across the country at Southeast Reference Laboratory,” said Thomas.

Southeast Reference laboratory will be one of the first locations in the United States to install new lab automation system. These types of systems use robotics to transport patients’ blood tubes from one area of the lab to another which eliminates manual workflows and frees up lab staff to focus on quality and accuracy of patient testing services.