FLORISSANT, MO. — Tarlton Corp. has completed the conversion of a Quality Inn hotel in Florissant into the state’s first alternate care facility to treat non-acute COVID-19 patients. The facility, if needed, will serve as backup for patients referred by St. Louis-area hospitals. Members of the Missouri National Guard will staff the facility. Tarlton worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the project, as well as Ross & Baruzzini, Rock Hill Mechanical Corp. and Guarantee Electrical Co. The 4.5-day project yielded more than 100 patient rooms on the four floors of the 130-room hotel. The team built a nurse’s station on each floor and turned the existing phone system into a nurse call system. The project assignment came just hours after Tarlton President Tracy Hart and COO Dirk Elsperman lost their father, Bob Elsperman, to COVID-19. Bob Elsperman led Tarlton from 1972 to1999. He was admitted to a St. Louis-area hospital on March 30 and died eight days later at the age of 83.
