The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a $17 million community facilities guaranteed loan to Community Memorial Healthcare, Inc., of Marysville, Kan., to construct a 25-bed critical access hospital.
"Replacing this aging hospital will have a tremendous impact not only on the physical health of the community's residents but also on the region's economic health," said USDA Rural Development Undersecretary Dallas Tonsager. "Critical care hospitals such as this are vital to the rural healthcare network."
The rural development funds will be used to build a 63,780-square-foot hospital to replace the current facility, built in 1958. All but 15,080 square feet of the original 54,000-square-foot building will be demolished.
According to local officials, the existing hospital, which has 220 employees and is the third-largest employer in Marshall County, Kan., does not function well in today's medical care environment, where 80 percent of services are provided on an outpatient basis.
As with many aging critical access hospitals, the hospital has several limitations, such as non-handicapped-accessible bathrooms, an insufficient number of private rooms, an inefficient layout, an outdated HVAC system and a lack of space for rehabilitation and specialty clinics, that make renovation impossible to justify. The new building will include energy-efficient features such as a hybrid electric/gas HVAC system and a centralized control system that will not heat or cool unused rooms.
Tonsager said the hospital offers a relatively unique service among rural healthcare facilities: neurological care. The services are made possible through the hospital's relationship with Mercy Regional Health Center in Manhattan, Kan.
The new facility will be finished in spring 2011 and is expected to help encourage doctors to remain in rural areas. In addition to the patient care benefits, the hospital provides about 65 meals a day through a reduced-cost Meals-on-Wheels program in the community of Marysville.
The loan funds are part of USDA Rural Development's annual budget and are not funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.