By Lori Ehde
Research continues on improvement options for Luverne Community Hospital and Medical Center.
Hospital Advisory Board members are working with Sioux Valley on an architectural study of the hospital and clinic campus.
According to hospital administrator Gerald Carl, the current buildings are not well-suited for new services offered to patients.
Further, he said hospital inpatient rooms are outdated, lacking amenities such as personal showers, which have become standard in most hospitals.
After several months of meeting with architects, three options have been identified as possible directions to pursue. Those options include:
oRenovating and expanding the present hospital and clinic on their existing campus.
oBuilding a new hospital on the parking lot to the north and expanding and renovating the clinic in its current location. This option would include closing Brown Street and new space for parking would need to be addressed.
oBuilding a new hospital and clinic facility on a completely different site. Planners haven't released possible options for a new location.
Planners also aren't releasing information on what might occupy the remaining hospital space if a new facility were to be built.
Sioux Valley Regional Health Services, a division of Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System, has retained interim architectural services of Spitznagel Inc.
The Sioux Falls firm has done previous work on the Luverne Hospital and on Sioux Valley System hospitals.
Carl said the need for more and better space speaks well for Luverne's medical facilities.
"We have a good complement of doctors. The hospital's been busy. Not all communities can say that," Carl said when the study began in April.
"We are adding a doctor this summer, and we have specialists that come to Luverne from Sioux Falls to see patients locally. There are more who would like to come, but we currently don't have the available space."
As the study continues, Carl said work - regardless of which option is pursued - could begin as early as next spring.
"We want to get input from all parties involved, and whatever we do, we need to make sure everyone's on the same page and that the decisions made are the best ones to serve the healthcare needs of the Luverne area," he said.
"It's very clear Luverne Community Hospital and Medical Center will do what needs to be done to meet those needs."