The decision to build a new hospital

In January 2006, OMHS began a needs assessment for expanded medical facilities in the Owensboro area. After nine months of careful deliberations and meetings with key stakeholders, the Board of Directors elected to develop a business plan to build a new hospital.

While OMHS is providing patients with state-of-the-art care in the current facility, the Board made its decision based on two important reasons:

1. Expanding Technology

Advances in medical care and communication are racing ahead, making it necessary to provide patients, physicians and staff with a facility that can accommodate new technologies. Additional space will also be required for updated intensive care units, operating rooms and other needs.

No reasonable amount of remodeling of the current facility would enable us to meet these demands.

2. A Growing Service Area

Today, OMHS serves more than Daviess County. Increasingly, we are drawing patients from an 11-county region. As an emerging regional medical center, OMHS must have the additional capacity to serve an ever growing – and aging – patient population. In the coming years, patient admissions are expected to increase significantly. On the current campus, there is simply not enough space for the needed expansion.

In short, our goal of providing more effective and efficient care requires a facility designed to meet the growing needs of an expanding 21st century patient population.