Tornado-ready Mercy Hospital Joplin was honored the by Kansas City Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, according to an article on the Kansas City Business Journal website.

In addition to setting the standard in tornado readiness at the hospital level, the project was completed under budget and in 46 months — less than half the time it would normally take to plan, design and construct a comparable facility, the article said.

After the St. John's Mercy Regional Medical Center was demolished by a May 22, 2011, tornado, Mercy made a promise to rebuild the hospital by early 2015.

The new facility includes a nine-story hospital patient tower and five-story clinic tower. It houses units including medical surgical disciplines, critical care, women's/children's (labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms), neonatal intensive care, behavioral health and rehab.

Read the article.