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Hospital expansion of $13.5 million OK'dBy Joel Stottrup The crucial piece in the overall approval for a major expansion of Princeton's Fairview Northland Regional Hospital has been given. That piece, the financial part, came on Tuesday last week from the finance board of Fairview Corporation, according to Mike Youso, administrator at Fairview Northland. The approximately $13.5 million project will add 43,000 square feet of new space and remodel 27,000 square feet of the current approximately 100,000-square foot hospital/clinic facility that opened in July 1993. The full corporate Fairview board is to decide next Tuesday whether it will give full approval to the project. "We're confident it will get approved and construction will begin [after Jan. 1]," Youso said. Any project this size has to go through the different approval levels, he said. A groundbreaking ceremony is already planned for next Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the area of the hospital cafeteria. What project will do The project will be phased in over an 18-month period or perhaps more quickly if things go well, Youso indicated. He and assistant administrator Jody Link stressed that the top priority will be to have the construction cause as little disruption as possible in the operations and patient care. When completed, the hospital will have a third floor above its lower level and first and second floors. The footprint of the hospital will be changed on the north side as most of that side will be moved farther out. A 2,036-square foot fourth level, called the penthouse (situated on the roof), will house mechanical and electrical equipment to support the expansion. The third flour will have four wings, of which two will be dedicated for obstetrics, namely prenatal, labor and postnatal care. The 21,214 square feet of obstetric space will include five new labor/delivery rooms, one new C-section room, a new nursery and up to 11 postpartum rooms. Part of the patient care area on the second floor is now used for obstetric patients. That load has grown so much that some of it has moved into part of the regular patient area. The other two wings on the new third level will be used for a pharmacy. Some of the space on the third floor will be set aside for growing patient care demand. The emergency department and surgery will have a dramatic increase in space. New construction here will total about 5,089 square feet and 4,314 square feet of existing space will be remodeled. A new ambulance garage is planned, along with 10 new patient treatment rooms. People entering the waiting area will have a much larger space and more choice of environment. Link explained that staff and patient feedback was helpful in designing the waiting area. One part of the waiting area will be designed for children, one part will include TV viewing and one part will be a quiet area. The area that exists now up near the emergency department entrance measures about 12x12 feet and a TV often sits turned on overhead. The nurses' station and central core area of emergency services will also be expanded. Four treatment rooms will be remodeled for location of fast-track emergency department patients. Surgical services will see an approximately 8,112-square foot expansion and 9,940 square feet of remodeling. The result will be two new operating rooms with one complete and one shell, plus two new procedure rooms, 10 new pre/post surgical rooms and five post anesthesia care unit rooms. The diagnostic imaging area will be expanded by 2,708 square feet and another 5,332 square feet of existing imaging space will be remodeled. The result will be the addition of an ultrasound room and a larger CT scan room. The MRI and nuclear medical service space will be reconfigured and the radiologist reading area will be enlarged to accommodate two radiologists. Lab services will get 3,736 square feet of remodeled space for improved efficiency. Medical records will be housed in a new space of about 3,644 square feet. The mechanical, loading dock and trash/recycling space will also be expanded by 3,872 square feet and 1,328 square feet will be remodeled. "It's a complicated project," said Youso, who has been the hospital's administrator since January 2001. Parking is to be expanded by 150 spaces. Some new temporary parking has already been added recently just south of the main south lot. Why the expansion "Most of the areas [at the hospital] are at a maximum capacity level now," said Youso as he explained the reason why he and staff members began planning for the expansion 18 months ago. "I think it is all a reflection of the whole region growing between Minneapolis and St. Cloud. We've done our demographic projections." When the hospital opened just over a decade ago the population of the service area of the hospital was at 55,000 and now it is at about 105,000, said Youso. "We're not doing this too soon," Youso said of the urgency to expand. "When it was built in 1993 it was not built to plan for the growth projection that has occurred. We expect some extra capacity will be built in. We hope it will last five to seven years, maybe 10. "Our demographic information shows the region is growing two times that of the seven-county metro area." The metro area is growing one percent per year while this region is growing at 2.3 percent, said Youso. The third floor construction is scheduled to begin this winter, with construction in general to start by the end of January. Knutson Construction has already been selected to be the general contractor and Hamel Green Abrahamson Architects is doing the design. Link and Youso said they have been told by at least one contractor that they would rather do exterior construction during snow than rain. "I'm extremely excited about the whole project," said Youso on Friday. "It's exciting for the regular employees, the physicians. There has been a significant amount of effort to get to where it is today by the people of Northland." A lot of work has gone into the planning in order to phase it in to affect hospital operations as little as possible during construction, Youso said. If that wasn't a concern the project could be done in about 12 months but because of using phases, the project could take up to 18 months, he explained. Princeton Union-Eagle |