$1.6 million renovation approved for former Crossroads building

About a year after purchasing the former Crossroads building, the Greater Regional Health Board of Trustees has approved a $1.65 million renovation of the building. Once complete, the facility will house hospital administration, HR, accounting and other similar departments.

The hospital is working with healthcare construction group Murray Company out of Des Moines on a variety of projects for the Cottonwood Road building, including a new roof, HVAC systems and the replacement of all doors.

“That building needs an overhaul in order to put people in it. It was not left in the greatest condition,” CEO Monte Neitzel said. “We need to upgrade that, predominantly the HVAC part of it, which adds to the cost of it overall.”

GRH Facilities Director Matt Buck said they would be adding five new HVAC systems, as well as other items not up to code.

“They also did not have a single fire-rated door over there,” Buck said. He explained the renovations were necessary in order to make room for more patient services in the hospital. “The building is running out of space.”

Neitzel agreed, adding the space left from when administration left for the Cottonwood building would free up space for patient care.

Board chairman Tom Lesan said renovating this building, while expensive, is cheaper than it would be to build something new.

“This is 6,500-ish square feet, so all totaled with this project, it works out to $238 per square foot,” Lesan said. “To build new on the hospital is like $1,300 per square foot. It’s gotten extreme.”

Murray Company team leader Major Ennen said he had expected the cost to be higher.

“I was really surprised at how competitive the numbers were,” Ennen said. “Between COVID and the new tariffs, these are numbers we haven’t seen in a couple of years, so I was pretty excited to share that. We are going to be taking a look at opportunities to be good stewards of the money.”

In other hospital news...

The board approved the purchase of a new Cepheid GeneXpert System, a PCR platform able to test for issues such as COVID, Influenza, Rhinovirus and more.

Surgery will be getting new booms for operating rooms, along with an updated video system to assist in procedures.

The Chartis Center for Rural Health provided a new report back to GRH, showing positive results over eight pillars, including quality of care, patient outcomes and cost. GRH ranked higher than the national benchmark, with a 90.8% index overall.