Freeman Health System, Joplin, Mo., has gotten federal waivers to add as many as 89 beds to accommodate the extra patients resulting from the tornado that struck the town May 22, destroying the other local hospital, 347-bed St. John's Regional Medical Center.

Freeman, which operates a two-campus hospital with 318 beds in Joplin and a 25-bed critical-access hospital in Neosho, Mo., has gotten permission to add 31 beds to its Freeman West campus, a tertiary facility, said Gary Duncan, president and CEO of the system. In addition, Freeman East can add 30 beds, and Freeman's critical-access hospital already has added 28 beds, with the final total to be determined later, he said. The additions will help satisfy a need for swing beds to hold less-critical patients, Duncan said.

Meanwhile, St. John's, which opened a 60-bed mobile hospital a week after the tornado struck, is going to have to rebuild completely, as its existing building has been declared unusable, according to a spokesman for parent Sisters of Mercy Health System, Chesterfield, Mo.