PITTSBURG — A new 50-bed hospital north of Pittsburg remains on track, affirmed Paula Baker, CEO of Freeman Health Systems.
Baker said the hospital will be on land annexed by the city of Frontenac at the intersection of U.S. 69 and East 600 Ave., according to the Pittsburg Morning Sun.
When completed, the $168 million hospital will be “pretty much full service,” Baker said, including the delivery of babies, orthopedics and a cancer center.
Baker stressed the new hospital is not to be viewed as a feeder for the company’s hospital in Joplin, Mo.
“The goal is not for this to be a center where we transfer to Joplin,” she told the Morning Sun. “The plan is to take care of Pittsburg and southeast Kansas in their own communities, so they don’t have to travel.”
Along with the new hospital, Freeman also intends to reopen the emergency room in Fort Scott by mid-2025. The ER there has been shuttered since the end of 2023. Fort Scott’s hospital has been closed since the end of 2019 when its owner, Via Christi, pulled out.
