Unusual tiny hospital proposed for Roeland Park

Preliminary site plans for an unusual — and small — eight-bed hospital have been filed with the city of Roeland Park.

The health care facility, including an emergency department, is proposed for a site at Roe Boulevard and Johnson Drive that has been sold to the hospital developer by Commerce Bank.

Commerce has retained ownership of part of the site, which is across the street from the proposed but long-stalled Mission Gateway development in neighboring Mission. Commerce intends to build a banking facility nearest the intersection, planned for a 2017 opening.

The 16,000-square-foot hospital, a project of Embree Asset Group Inc. of Georgetown, Tex., would be located west of the bank, fronting Johnson Drive.

The Embree group of companies includes the Embree Healthcare Group Inc., which has built more than 2.5 million square feet of health facilities and has been involved in more than 200 health-related projects nationally, according to the company’s website.

Roeland Park planning commissioners are expected to consider the preliminary plan in August. The Roeland Park City Council heard an initial report earlier this week from Aaron March, an attorney representing Commerce.

The plan indicates the hospital will be named Hospital of Roeland Park and will not be affiliated with existing hospital systems in the Kansas City area.

The proposed hospital would have no outpatient services. Its in-patient side would be used for overnight patients who require such nursing services as hospice care, IV hydration, vital sign monitoring, respiratory care, and treatment for such things as infections, pain, poisoning or asthma complications.

The concept also calls for an emergency department, categorized as a Level Four trauma center, that would treat minor, not severe, emergencies. The city council was told that patients likely would be brought to the emergency room by relatives or drive themselves and that ambulance service would be used “almost exclusively” to transport patients away from the hospital, not to it.

The concept suggests that the facility would handle urgent-care needs after urgent-care clinics close for the night. Any person requiring specialist treatment or presenting a severe condition would be transported to a larger trauma center, once the condition was stabilized, the plan indicates.

The facility likely would treat about 35 patients in a 24-hour period. On the in-patient side, expected stays would likely be two or three days.

This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Unusual tiny hospital proposed for Roeland Park."