A graceful steel curve viewed from Interstate 39 blends with an expanse of steel infrastructure rising from a field on Mendota's east side.  The structure will become Mendota's new hospital building with more than 105,000 square feet of clinical and diagnostic spaces carefully planned for patient privacy and convenience.  "We've put everything together so the patient doesn't have to walk too far," said Lynn Klein, Mendota Community Hospital chief executive officer.

The current hospital building on Route 251 in Mendota is arranged with the emergency room and ambulance bay facing the state highway.  The new building offers aseltered ambulance bay on the south side of the building which is shielded from U.S. 34 by the hospital building.  "It keeps everybody out of the elements," said Kris Goodbred, chief nursing officer. "Plus it's a more secure area for our patients."

The privacy extends to separate halls for patients and visitors, Klein added.  Instead of patients proceeding through public hallways for treatments or other procedures, they will have separate access areas to further enhance privacy.

Klein said the new building also will greatly increase the treatments and therapies available locally. For example, magnetic resonance imaging services are offered but only on a limited basis and from a mobile trailer set up on the west side of the current hospital building. The new facility will offer MRI services around the clock. The area will be easily accessible by patients and staff whether it's from the emergency room or a physician's office.

"The managers and the staff have really played a big part in their areas," Goodbred said.  "They've really had a lot of input."   Gilbert Hermosillo, information services/materials manager, said the building was designed from the ground up to accommodate the leaps in technology since the original hospital was built during the 1940s and dedicated in 1949.

Digital radiology equipment, enhanced technology for all departments along with more outpatient space for rehabilitation services and community health services will all be under one roof, and on one floor, in the 25-bed hospital building which sits on 22 of the 40 available acres purchased by MCH.  Klein said the additional acreage will prevent the building from becoming landlocked which was a concern when hospital officials started considering an expansion several years ago.

"When we were looking at modernization here, we were looking at a lot of half-floors," Klein said.  The current configuration would have forced the staff to retrofit the 60-year-old building to accommodate 21st century technology along with patient comfort.

The new hospital's 25 beds will all be in private rooms with overnight sleeping accommodations for family members who want to spend the night.  The new facility also will be completely handicap-accessible, Goodbred added. She said they worked with the staff at Illinois Valley Center for Independent Living to go above and beyond the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  "They see things from a wholedifferent angle," Goodbred said. "And there will be no more elevators to contend with."

Klein said construction is on schedule and will continue through this year. Full occupancy is expected in 2011. She said the hospital does not initially anticipate adding any additional staff although the need could be there once the facility is fully up and running.

Currently, the hospital has more than 300 employees and an annual payroll of $12 million that served 43,800 separate patient registrations in 2008, a number that Klein expects will continue to grow.

The fate of the current building is still unknown, Klein said. Hospital board members have discussed different options including selling it or razing it and selling the land as individual lots.

The new facility will be served by an expanded U.S. 34 and Klein said that could stimulate the local economy.  "I think it will spur on economic development in Mendota, especially to the east," she said. "Mendota will have a new hospital, a new high school, and a nice addition to the grade school."

A live webcam installed at Ekana Nurseries on U.S. 34 across from the construction site offers a live stream of the progress at MCH's Web site, www.mendotahospital.org.

"It's just exciting to see it rise up out of the field after all that planning," Goodbred said.

Article above is reprinted, with permission, from the March 19, 2010 News Tribune newspaper.  Original article is written by Mendota Bureau Chief, Tamara Abbey.

APRIL UPDATE

The contractors are working from west to east and have erected metal studs in the Support Services (Information Services, Environmental Services, Materials Management and Food Service) as well as in the Surgical Suite.  Flooring has also been poured in these areas as well as the west section of the patient room wing. 

The masons have been busy laying pre-cast stone to the exterior on the west and south sides of the building and we are anticipating that they will begin to lay the brick soon.

Continue to watch the progress by clicking on the webcam link above.