Project category: Project in progress (February 2008)

Chief administrator: John A. Bluford, CEO, (816) 404-3685

Firm: ACI/Boland, Inc., (816) 763-9600

Design team: John E. Abraham, Planner/Design Principal; Doug Boyd, Project Manager; Ken Keith, Project Architect; Elizabeth Lester, Interior Designer (ACI/Boland, Inc.); Mike Falbe, PE, Structual Engineer (Bob D. Campbell Structural Engineering); Scott VanDoren, PE, MEP Engineer (Bredson & Associates – MEP)

Photography: Eric Byrne; Mike Spillers

Total building area (sq. ft.): 180,000 (new); 12,900 (renovation)

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $163 (new); $208 (renovation)

Total construction cost (excluding land): $29,250,000 (new); $2,682,000 (renovation)

Truman Medical Center Lakewood features a 180,000-sq.-ft., three- story, $38 million expansion that includes a prominent main entrance. The previous facility lacked a conspicuous entrance, so patients had difficulty knowing where to arrive. The new entrance leads to a two-story atrium lobby with a luminous, undulating ceiling presenting a welcoming, well-lit interior.


The Lakewood Campus has gained a state-of-the-art addition sporting all private beds with integral baths; eight ICU rooms; a 20-station Emergency Department with large enclosed rooms; and a new four-OR Outpatient/Inpatient Surgical Suite on the ground floor, which is accessible from the main lobby and has a dedicated pickup area. Improvements to this acute care hospital also included adding separate entrances to the Emergency Department and material handling area.

Visitors comment on the resort-like feeling in public areas and patient rooms, including such subtle touches as the use of natural light, hypoallergenic finishes, hidden technology, and organic forms. Continuing this resort theme with a Gift Shop, Coffee/Snack Shop with walk-out patio, various lounges, and an emphasis on artwork has made a positive impression on Lakewood’s 40,000 visitors.

On the second floor the 34 acute care beds are divided into two 17-bed nursing units, with shelled expansion space within each unit for 8 additional beds. A central reception/point-of-arrival area on the second floor allows direct access to each medical/surgical nursing unit and 8-bed ICU.

Anticipated expansion has been incorporated into the structure. There is first-floor shell space for four additional inpatient operating rooms, and 35,000 square feet of shell space for clinics and doctors’ offices is located on the ground and first floor off the entrance lobby, with escalator access between floors. These shell spaces can be adapted into additional hospital space. The structure has expansion capabilities for two additional floors over the patient tower and one additional floor over the adjacent first-floor roof area.


Departments remodeled in the existing hospital include Outpatient Admissions, Radiology, Family Practice Clinic, Specialty Clinic, Same Day Medicine, Laboratory, OB, NICU, Dietary, and Administration. All floors of the new addition have connecting corridors with the existing building.


The master plan includes moving preexisting hospital departments into portions of the new addition after clinics and medical offices move into separate but connective structures on this 50-acre site.