O’FALLON, Mo. — An outpatient health center offering a range of primary care and specialty services for both kids and adults, which SSM Health officials say is the first of its kind in the St. Louis region, opens this month in fast-growing St. Charles County.
SSM Health and government officials were scheduled Monday to mark the scheduled Oct. 21 opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and private tours of the 66,000-square-foot facility, located near Interstate 64 and Highway DD in O’Fallon.
This is the region’s first outpatient facility not attached to a hospital that will house adult and pediatric urgent care, adult and pediatric primary care, imaging, lab work, prescription services and pediatric specialists such as audiologists and ophthalmologists, said Jeremy Fotheringham, SSM Health’s regional president for St. Louis and southern Illinois.
“There is no other clinic like this out there,” Fotheringham said. “From grandparents to newborns and everyone in between, they’ll be able to receive care in the same building, at the same time, with lab services and imaging services.”
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The facility is vital, he said, in ensuring residents in the fastest-growing county in Missouri have expert care close to home.
St. Charles County is the third most populated county in Missouri with an estimated nearly 414,000 residents. U.S. Census estimates released in May show a significant growth trend among its municipalities including Wentzville, O’Fallon, Lake Saint Louis and St. Peters.
Wentzville gained more than 2,800 people since 2020, an increase of nearly 6.5%, just ahead of the estimated 2,700 residents gained by neighboring O’Fallon, the region’s second-largest city. The surrounding counties of Warren and Lincoln, also saw increases.
“Our building is really just matching the tremendous growth that is happening in O’Fallon and the entire area,” Fotheringham said.
The opening comes on the heels of SSM Health doubling the capacity of its emergency room at St. Joseph Hospital in Wentzville. And the Mercy health system has won state approval to build a new $650 million 75-bed hospital in Wentzville.
SSM’s new outpatient center will be located in the subdivision, a more than $400 million project that includes 657 new homes and townhomes and 93 acres of commercial space.
St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann praised the opening of the outpatient center for not only improving health care access for residents but also improving economic opportunity.
The county provided about the city of O’Fallon needed to build the roads for the facility, he said, with the stipulation that it would generate higher-paying jobs.
“We didn’t just want a bunch of strip malls,” Ehlmann said. “We were happy to do it because they promised to get the jobs, and they came through on their promises.”