Freeman Health System has given $1 million to support Missouri Southern’s new Roy Blunt Health Science Innovation Center, providing significant investment in a facility being created to educate the region’s next generation of healthcare providers. The gift to the Missouri Southern Foundation also supports the university’s Lions Forward campaign which seeks to raise $42.7 million for seven key priorities.
The new center, currently under construction with an estimated completion date of Fall 2026, will provide Missouri Southern students with more immersive-learning opportunities and experiences to enhance their education in preparation for the ever-changing healthcare field. Not only will the state-of-the-art facility provide students with unique, immersive experiences such as the expanded cadaver lab and virtual reality simulation, but it will also include a simulation hospital featuring a NICU, labor and delivery unit, acute and critical care rooms, X-ray and CT scan suites, and more. Students will be integrated into a hospital setting without leaving the MSSU campus.
“The university is deeply grateful for Freeman’s generous investment in the Roy Blunt Health Science Innovation Center and in the future of health care in the Four States region,” Missouri Southern President Dr. Dean Van Galen said during a special event Monday. “Freeman’s investment will help provide unparalleled immersive learning opportunities for our students, ensuring that they are highly prepared for successful careers that make a difference in the lives of others. It’s another chapter in an extraordinary partnership between Freeman Health System and Missouri Southern.”
In recognition of Freeman’s generosity, the university is naming two important immersive learning spaces within the facility. The Freeman Skills Lab and the Freeman Simulation Classroom. The new Freeman Skills Lab will be a large, flexible space where students from a range of health science programs can practice what they learn. The flexible learning space will be designed so each professor can move or add equipment to enhance whatever learning will occur that day. It also will have large glass walls so visitors to campus can see learning on display. The skills lab will allow the instructor to set up stations throughout the building or to expand current lab capabilities when learned skills require more space.
The Freeman Simulation Classroom will be a space where students can complete other tasks when they are not actively participating in a simulation scenario. This room can be used for pre-briefing and debriefing of simulation scenarios, specialty lectures related to the scenario of the day, guest lecturers, or for students to complete assignments pre/post simulation.
“We’re honored to contribute to the growing array of options available to students pursuing careers in healthcare at Missouri Southern State University,” said Paula Baker, President and CEO of Freeman Health System. “Freeman’s gift to the Roy Blunt Health Science Innovation Cetner will help equip the school with simulation hospital rooms and skills labs that put the latest healthcare technologies into the hands of tomorrow’s nurses, doctors, technologists, and therapists. Real-life scenarios, ranging from acute care to labor and delivery and everything in between will give students experience that will serve them well as they progress through their education and through their careers.”
In 2014, Freeman and Missouri Southern signed a long-term, exclusive partnership with Freeman becoming the official sports medicine and rehabilitation service provider at the university, sponsoring and supporting the Freeman Sports Medicine and Rehab Center for athletes on Missouri Southern’s campus and providing medical professionals to support MSSU athletics. Dr. Robert Lieurance from Freeman has served as the MSSU team physician for the past 15 years, and athletic trainers from Freeman support Missouri Southern athletes daily.
The health system also continues to provide staff for the university’s on-campus student health clinic, the Willcoxon Health Center. Additionally, Freeman is one of the largest employers of Missouri Southern graduates.
