Join us in celebrating National Rural Health Day

Friday, November 14th, 2014

To help honor the progress and service of our rural healthcare clients, Pope Architects is recognizing National Rural Health Day on November 20, 2014. 

Pope Architects assists organizations throughout Minnesota and the Midwest to design facility solutions to help deliver quality healthcare to rural communities. We wanted to highlight two organizations we have partnered with to provide planning and design services.

RC HOSPITAL AND CLINICS, OLIVIA, MINNESOTA

The organization embarked on a new replacement hospital and clinic facility in 2012 and started construction in April 2014. The new facility will be approximately 62,000 square feet, and include a Primary Clinic with 18 exam rooms and one procedure room, outpatient and specialty clinics, lab, radiology, therapy, 16 inpatient beds (includes two OB and one hospice), two operating rooms, and an education center.

Prairie Business featured the importance of this new facility to Renville County’s rural community — Olivia, Minn., hospital aims to lead the way in rural health care:

Renville County is a leader in agriculture. With the new facility, it has the opportunity to be a leader in rural health care too, said Olivia Mayor Suzanne Hilgert.

Its rewards will go beyond the obvious health care benefits provided by a modern facility. Health care facilities are usually one of the largest employers in a rural county, and serve as an economic engine to drive other economic growth.

Nathan Blad, CEO said there will be improved efficiencies with the new construction, but he believes the biggest difference will be in the quality of care it will now be possible to offer. The goal is to offer rural health care “second to none,” Blad and others said at the groundbreaking.

WINDOM AREA HOSPITAL, WINDOM, MINNESOTA

Windom Area Hospital needed to modernize their facility’s surgery services and provide expanded outreach clinic services. The new 23,000 sq. ft. addition includes a new Surgery Department, Outreach Clinic, and a new heliport is currently under construction. In addition, the project will include remodeling to address changing patient flows and staff efficiency, along with creating a new welcoming entry point to the facility.

Prairie Business featured the impact of Windom’s expanded and remodeled campus — Windom Area Hospital expands:

“We’ve been considering this project and known there was a great need for this for a long time,” said Emily Masters, Windom Area Hospital’s director of human resources and marketing. “The majority of our current revenue — 84 percent to be exact — comes from outpatient care, so when we were looking at expanding we knew we had to make that a focus. That is what our community benefits from and utilizes the most.”

Outpatient rooms are extremely critical to WAH, according to Masters, and making room for visiting specialists is a key component in the expansion.

“We have various visiting specialists that come in so our patients can see a specialist right in town versus driving somewhere else, but right now the current space for the specialists is very tight,” Masters said.

 Please join Pope Architects and our clients in celebrating National Rural Health Day on November 20, 2014.