The Quad City Times reported today on an array of changes for Davenport’s Genesis Health System East Rusholme campus and the impacts on the West Central Park campus. Construction on the “East” campus will top $138 million, likely the largest sum for any project in Davenport history. In the details of the story, it is revealed that some 500 jobs will be moved to the East Rusholme campus when all of the construction and remodeling is complete. The jobs are largely associated with the loss of 64 beds at the former Mercy Hospital. No longer will orthopedic surgeries be done at the Central Park building. All surgeries will be performed in the newly planned 12 surgical suites part of a seven story addition to the old St. Mary’s Hospital on Rusholme. Officials of Genesis Health Systems explained that the more central location to all of the Quad Cities was the rationale for improving the Rusholme St campus over the Central Park campus.
The Central Park campus will continue to offer some health services including cancer care, both outpatient and inpatient. To this observer, the critical ingredient is the care for mental health patients, that the current federal administration has championed. Recently more than 100 million dollars for support of rural mental health clinics were suggested by Vice President Biden. That is not enough to meet this country’s mental health needs but it may mean some help for the recent budget cuts Genesis has been forced to make to “behavioral health”. The topic of increased funding for mental health has followed mass shootings in Connecticut and Colorado. Obamacare is also supposed to provide more funding for mental health because it mandates coverage for it. Our neighborhood needs a significant workforce at Genesis Central Park campus for our stability. We need to be proactive in fighting for the jobs at Genesis, just as we have come together for other recent neighborhood concerns.
The complete newspaper article can be found at:
Genesis website is http://www.genesishealth.com/
