(Spirit Lake)– Progress continues on the construction of a new medical clinic and office facility at Lakes Regional Healthcare, along with some remodeling on the west side of the hospital.
LRH President and CEO Jason Harrington tells KUOO news the project remains on schedule…
“You can see steel girders on the west side that will hold up the new canopy that will exist out there. That entrance is actually scheduled to open sometime in May, so we wanted the ER portion of it done by May, and then the medical office building itself, if you were to walk back into the building, the drywall is going up, some above ceiling work is being done, so you can actually go in there and kind of see progress. I think people can actually make out what’s in there and we hadn’t really been to that point yet, so we’re excited about that. I think the medical office building, you know I’ve learned over time having done enough building projects that you don’t give specific dates, so I’m going to say mid to late summer the medical office building should open, so very excited about that. Good progress is being made, so.”
Harrington says for the most part, the project is also still on budget…
“Part of that project is a remodel of some older parts of the hospital and I think anytime you get into that, you know, you’re relying on drawings that are really old and sometimes they’re not current, so you often times will run into things. But the other thing I would mention, Steve, too and we’re thankful for this, but I think there are 22 different contractors that have been on site or will be on site throughout the project, and a number of those contractors are local. So we have contractors from Spirit Lake, we have contractors from Spencer, we have contractors from other places in northwest Iowa. Our construction manager happens to be from Sioux Falls. But we’re really thankful for, you know, our local contractors and we’re happy to be contributing to their work as well.”
Harrington again thanks hospital and clinic patients for their cooperation and patience as the construction continues.
