KCTV 5OP hospital, neighborhood compromise on expansion

Overland Park Regional Medical Center and its neighbors have reached a compromise.

The Overland Park City Council unanimously approved a compromised expansion plan for Overland Park Regional Medical Center on Monday night.

"The delay was certainly a good thing. It allowed us to sit and discuss ways we could forge a compromise," said hospital CEO Damond Boatwright.

A compromise that seemed miles apart last month. The Oak Park neighborhood, which is just north of the hospital at 435 and Quivira, didn't want the hospital to expand literally into their backyards. The Overland Park planning commission had already approved the expansion, but after a long and sometimes testy meeting in January, city commissioners wanted both sides to sit down and work it out.

"I quickly decided the best thing I could do was listen," Boatwright said. "I heard the neighbors, I will continue to hear our neighbors, to find ways we can have a better hospital and a better community."

The compromise gives the neighbors 50 feet of space, a walking trail, and a privacy fence, all to keep everyone happy.

"We should have been using design as a solution, because that was the thing that finally moved it," neighbor Darby Trotter said.

The hospital's $125 million expansion will update the emergency room, and all patients will now have private rooms. Updates Boatwright says are badly needed.

"For anyone whose been in a semi private room, they know having your own privacy, having more space, having the ability to reduce noise and then showing that we can reduce medication errors as well as improve overall quality, that makes a big difference," Boatwright said.

Boatwright said the hospital will break ground in about 6 months and the project should be complete in two to two and a half years.

The expanded hospital will bring about 125 new jobs to Overland Park.

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