Mercy announced plans on Friday to construct a $650 million hospital in Wentzville, Missouri in an attempt to address the increasing number of residents in the state’s tri-county area.

The health system filed a "letter of intent" with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services for the prospective 75-bed, 483,000-square-foot medical facility. Construction is expected to take about four years and once completed, it will be the state’s first new acute-care hospital campus built since 2015.

“Now is the time to invest in the future and better serve our patients closer to home,” Steve Mackin, president and CEO of Mercy, said in a statement. “The need for this facility, while significant today, will only increase as projected growth continues.”

The populations of St. Charles, Lincoln, and Warren counties have increased by 74,461; 18,519; and 7,797 respectively from 2010 to 2020, according to the Missouri Office of Administration data. St. Charles alone is projected to reach almost 500,000 residents by 2030.

Mercy’s own data found that many of their patients travel over an hour from Lincoln and Warren to receive care in St. Louis. More specifically, 18 percent of the tri-county residents travel for care to Mercy.

Construction of this facility will also benefit the region’s job market. Mercy projects this will create hundreds of new long-term healthcare job openings, which include primary care physician, specialist, nurse, and other support staff positions.

The health system took note of the needs of these counties in 2010 when it created a community master plan using feedback from residents and leaders on the most in-demand services. Going forward, it plans to host roundtable discussions so that the community can continue to share ideas for the new hospital.

In other news, the health system announced plans last month to bring Children’s Mercy Kansas City to its Mercy Hospital campus. This is part of its effort to improve pediatric care in southeast Missouri.

A significant number of children in the region have to travel to Kansas City or St. Louis to get specialized care, David Argueta, president of Mercy Southwest Missouri, explained in a statement. This partnership will bring that care to them.

Mercy also announced two acquisitions this year. In January, it acquired SoutheastHEALTH, a healthcare provider with 51 locations across southeast Missouri, and a month later, it entered an agreement to obtain ownership of Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, Kansas.

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