The majority of St. Johns Mercy Clinic primary care offices have been open since May 24, 2011 with all displaced primary care physicians seeing patients since the following day. Many of them have been serving from Joplin's Memorial Hall, 8th & Joplin streets while more permanent locations were considered.

The decision to set up a temporary facility on the grounds of St. John's at McClelland and 26th Street has been announced by Dr. Bob Dodson.

"The building is not St. John's St. John's is the people who worked in that building. And they're going to be the people in this building," Dodson said.

Dodson added that the hospital will allow them to do everything they could within St. John's original structure, only on a smaller scale. The temporary building constructed to withstand 100 mile per hour winds will offer 60 inpatient beds with the capability for expansion if the community dictates it. It also will have an emergency department, surgical suites, MRI and CT scan capabilities and a pharmacy.

Well be able to do everything we need to do for patients we see here. Well make sure they are able to get their medicines and the treatments they need. Their wounds will be cared for and their daily needs will be met, vital signs monitored, telemetry, lab work, all of that will be done, said St. Johns Mercy nurse Marilyn Welling.

How insurance will be handled

The major health plans serving the Joplin area will pay benefits in-network for patients of both Freeman and St. John's. The electronic health record system became interconnected between the two hospitals on May 1.

"Our electronic health record contains all of the records of our patients before the storm. We don't have to worry about losing a paper chart or having it damaged by water or rain," Dodson said.

Contact information

St. John's Mercy patients should phone (417) 781-2727 for information about appointments and services.

Missouri Wing transports vaccines to Joplin

Expedited delivery of tetanus vaccine donated by Barnes-Jewish Hospital of St. Louis was made courtesy of the Missouri Wing of Civil Air Patrol, the U.S. Air Force auxiliary. 200 doses arrived on May 28, 2011 in Joplin at a field hospital established by MO-1, DMAT.

Less than one week after St. Johns Regional Medical Center was destroyed in Joplin by the tornado, MO-1 DMAT, serving Missouri residents at the direction of the governor, established a field hospital adjacent to the ruined medical center with the assistance of the Missouri National Guard, Mercy staff, contractors, laborers of all trades and a variety of state and local agencies.

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