CentraCare Paynesville Hospital to Undergo $28 Million Facelift and Expansion

(KNSI) — The CentraCare Paynesville Hospital is set to undergo a $28 million facelift and expansion starting this spring.

According to CentraCare Paynesville Hospital President Brandon Pietsch, talk of an expansion began when the Paynesville hospital district became affiliated with CentraCare in 2013. “The effort to improve the patient care areas to improve our patient experience. Were part of the affiliation agreement that was established back at that time.”

He says the expansion will “primarily impact the inpatient areas, emergency room, and create a new main entrance,” adding, “some of the aspects of the project include a new inpatient hospital wing, new main entrance, new emergency department that will also have two trauma rooms, procedure room and opportunities to support our patients that are coming in for surgical services for pre and post op care. The project will also create some additional conference spaces in the new main lobby entry area.”

One of the features he says will be nice for patients and visitors is a covered drop-off canopy area for the main hospital entrance. The most significant benefit of all Pietsch believes will be in the future, with the opportunity to bring additional specialty services to the community.

The project will come in two phases. The first phase of the construction will have minimal impact on those using services in the building. Phase two, Pietsch says, will be a little more disruptive and require more coordination as they will be temporarily relocating the emergency room into the new inpatient area. He says the link between the housing facility and the hospital and clinic area will be disrupted during that phase of construction as well.

Pietsch says everyone is “really excited about the opportunity that our campus is being given to improve the experience for our patients. And we know it’s going to be a interesting and challenging couple of years as we work through the construction project, but we think in the end it’s going to be really nice addition to the Paynesville community.”

Each phase of construction will take about 11 months, so they’re looking at a total of about two years of construction with the project, funded through CentraCare’s capital investment process and the Paynesville campus through its operations.

___