New Main Entrance

St. John's Hospital opened a new temporary main entrance May 10, 2005 which will serve as the primary entryway to the hospital until the Patient Tower is complete in 2008.

The new entrance, located on the east end of the East Pavilion near St. John's Hammons Heart Institute, is designed to accommodate the estimated 5,000 people who enter St. John's Hospital's front doors each day. The entrance, under a large blue awning,  includes two drives - a multi-lane drive for patient drop-off and pick-up and a gated drive for shuttle service to and from the south parking lot.

To facilitate access to the new entrance, five covered shuttle stops are located in the parking lots south of Cherokee. Shuttle buses for patients, visitors and co-workers will run regular routs from the stops to the new front door.

The easiest and most preferred access to St. John's Main Campus is from Seminole Street on to Kickapoo, which takes drivers directly to the temporary main entrance.

For safety reasons, Cherokee Street will detour on an inner loop road through the south parking lot. It is necessary to re-route traffic off Cherokee to protect drivers and pedestrians from the construction site.

On the east side of campus, drivers can also access the loop road from Fremont onto Cherokee.

An estimated 16,000 vehicles visit the St. John's main campus each day. The campus has roughly 2,000 car spaces that turn over 5 to 6 times per day on a weekday. The busiest traffic period is usually weekdays from 2 - 3:30 p.m.

Once the new temporary main entrance is opened, the old doorway, which has served as the entry point to the hospital since it opened in 1952, will close.