MOUNT VERNON - St. Mary's Good Samaritan Inc. is moving forward with plans to build a replacement hospital, surgery center and medical office building in Mount Vernon.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board gave unanimous approval earlier this week to plans for the Good Samaritan Regional Health Center replacement hospital and other facilities.

With 359,000-square-feet of space, t he 138-bed replacement hospital nearly doubles the size of the current facility and adds an attached 141,000-square-foot medical office building and ambulatory surgery center with its own entrance.

The new facility will allow St. Mary's Good Samaritan to prepare for future growth and advances in patient care and technology, Phil Gustafson, CEO of St. Mary's Good Samaritan, said.

"The new facility will benefit our entire community, and each patient we serve," he said earlier this week in a press release. "The approval today means St. Mary's Good Samaritan takes a giant step forward in our capacity to carry on our healing ministry."

The new hospital is planned for the southwest side of the city near the new Interstate 57 interchange. Its location near the Center for Comprehensive Cancer Care and the Orthopaedic Center of Southern Illinois could serve to draw more development to the area, Mount Vernon Mayor Mary Jane Chesley said.

"It could bring others to the area," Chesley said. "The new hospital will enhance the community and bring in more development and medical and related services."

The new complex will also help the city with economic development efforts, she said.

"It will be supremely important when companies come in to look at our city. They look for the financial incentives and those are pretty standard in most towns, but they also look at quality-of-life issues like health care - that's a top priority," she said.

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