Area hospital starts $4 million project

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Bryan Slaba, Wagner Community Memorial Hospital-Avera administrator, left, talks with Elsie Meeks, Trace Davids and Sherrie Lewis, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development offices in Pierre, Sioux Falls and Yankton, respectively, after a groundbreaking Monday for the hospital’s $4 million addition and remodeling project. The hospital received financing from Rural Development for the project. (Melanie Brandert/Republic Photo)

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WAGNER — Residents in the Wagner area will find more services at Wagner Community Memorial Hospital-Avera next year and in 2012.

Hospital and local officials kicked off a $4 million project with a groundbreaking Monday afternoon. A new addition will feature 13 new inpatient rooms; a nurse’s station; an emergency room trauma area; rooms for hospice, post-operation and preoperation; a hospital pharmacy; and an ambulance garage.

Two existing wings of the 20-bed hospital also will be renovated after the addition is finished in fall 2011, Hospital Administrator Bryan Slaba said. Remodeling will take about five months.

“Over the past few years, it has become evident the current facility, though well maintained, does not fully address the current best practices of delivering health care,” he said. “Health care has evolved, and we need to evolve with it.”

The project is being funded by a $1.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loan, a $1.25 million Rural Development loan through Community State Bank in Wagner, a $309,000 state Community Development Block Grant and $890,000 in community contributions.

Slaba said afterward that two rooms of the hospital’s new inpatient wing will be an intensive care unit and critical care unit. Nine single rooms and two semi-private rooms will be included.

As a busy, critical-care access hospital, Slaba said, the hospital needed to address federal privacy regulations, infection-control standards and family issues to ensure a better stay and recovery for patients.

At one time, the hospital has treated up to 15 as inpatients, Slaba said. If four or five more are discharged or admitted, that means 20 patients have been handled.

“That’s a pretty heavy load for a small, little hospital in a community of 1,600,” he said.

Because the hospital has many semi-private rooms in which two patients stay, health conversations could be overheard, thus creating a federal health-information privacy concern, Slaba said.

Current rooms, which are smaller, don’t have their own showers. One tub/shower unit is located per wing and must be sanitized after each use, Slaba said. New rooms will each have a bathroom.

A hospice room will be renovated in an old wing. The two current wings will be rebuilt to offer more outpatient services — a direction that the healthcare industry is headed, Slaba said.

During the ceremony, Ken Thaler, hospital board president from Wagner, and Mayor Sharon Haar commended local residents for their generosity.

“This fantastic participation from our community shows how important a modern facility is to them,” he said.

Haar said the hospital expansion is a much-needed addition to health-care services provided to area residents.

“Due to the diligent work of the hospital board and administration and volunteers, this proud day has arrived,” she said.

The hospital has established Wagner as a regional hub for health care with the expansion and its continued, excellent health-care services, said Matt Cerny, Wagner Chamber of Commerce president.

Cerny said he has seen a renewed optimism in the community since the hospital’s first expansion.

“Wagner is more than just another town along the highway,” he said. “It’s a destination.”

Mike Frei, past president of Wagner Area Growth Development Corp., pointed out that a local contractor will be involved in the construction, and local jobs will be created at the hospital.

“They obviously are providing the growth in facilities and services that the community of Wagner needs,” Frei said.

Cerny said afterward that the project not only makes Wagner stronger, but also the small towns around the area. If people look to retire in Wagner, he said, senior-friendly homes could expand in town.

“The economic impact is huge, because these people are traveling here to (their) doctor,” he said.

Slaba said eight to 10 nursing jobs will be created upon completion.

The additional jobs will mean a portion of those individuals will relocate to Wagner and contribute to the local economy, Cerny said.

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