Poplar Bluff hospital officials file proposal for new facility

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center on Friday filed its formal proposal to the state of Missouri to build a $170 million, 250-bed medical campus, making it one of the biggest single corporate investments in Poplar Bluff's history.

Hospital officials chose a site on the south side of Route PP instead of the Eight Points site along Oak Grove Road.

When the new hospital is completed, the medical center's North Campus will become the region's largest rehabilitation and psychiatric center.

The South Campus, meanwhile, will continue to be used by the nursing school at Three Rivers College.

The proposed medical campus will be on 64 acres on the south side of Route PP between the U.S. 67 Bypass and Shelby Road.

Hospital officials anticipate that the new campus will be open and caring for patients in the first quarter of 2014.