(Spirit Lake)– The Board of Trustees of Dickinson County Memorial Hospital Thursday decided to enlarge the expansion being planned for the hospital.
New additions are planned to the southeast and southwest of the existing hospital. Patient rooms on the second floor will be remodeled to single occupancy. The expansion to the southeast will include 18 new single occupancy rooms with the expansion to the southwest housing outpatient services and an educational area.
Trustees decided Thursday to enlarge the expansion by an additional 1,300 square feet. Hospital CEO Rich Kielman says the building committee made the recommendation to the board after visiting other hospitals. He says it will result in larger patient rooms…giving them more of a home-like atmosphere.
The additional square footage will tack about another million dollars onto the project. But Kielman says deleting plans for a basement under the entire facility will offset that. As a result, he says the original cost estimate of 6.455 million will remain intact.
A public hearing on the issuance of eight million dollars in hospital capital loan notes for the project is set for 5:30 p.m. April 22nd.
