Marshall Browning Hospital to Break Ground on Doctors' Park in February
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ The Marshall Browning Hospital in February hopes to break ground on a new suite of doctors' offices on the grassy knoll immediately southwest of the hospital's Emergency Room and helipad.
Completion of the building--valued at nearly $1 million--would empty the last of the original 1922 hospital and set in motion a plan to demolish the original hospital. Demolition would create a smart, new look to the entire campus that now includes a new 25-bed private room patient wing, new surgical suite, pharmacy and laboratory, a stand-alone physical therapy and rehabilitation center and Marshall Browning Estates, which continues to have a waiting list.
It would be the culmination of a very visionary plan begun in the early 1990s.
The current work involves completing the move of clerical and administrative functions off the third floor of the original building to the second floor of the 1972 patient unit. "We are probably 90 percent finished," said hospital CEO Bill Huff. He said housekeeping and laundry departments will be moved in the coming weeks.
The new suite of doctors' offices would house Dr. Tucker, Dr. Hall and Dr. Jafri and should be inviting in the hospital's recruitment efforts for more doctors. He said the contract for construction has not yet been finalized.
Marshall Browning Hospital was conceived on January 14, 1918, when Lillie F. Browning drew up her last will and testament, leaving the bulk of her estate to a trust which would have the responsibility of erecting and supporting a public hospital in or near Du Quoin. She requested the hospital be named in memory of her husband "Marshall."
The Julliette Wall Pope addition was added in 1957 and a patient wing in 1972.
Huff said his board has also approved the purchase of approximately $100,000 in upper and lower GI equipment. And, at end the year, the hospital has also announced a four-year scholarship program for Du Quoin High School students committed to a career in health care.