Mercyhealth Crystal Lake hospital begins hiring staff; interior construction underway

Hiring has begun for the new $105 million Mercyhealth hospital in Crystal Lake, which is set to open in the spring, officials said.

Located near Route 31 and Three Oaks Road, the hospital – originally set to open in summer 2023 – will house the city’s first and only 24/7 emergency room, as well as private inpatient, surgery and intensive care suites; diagnostic services; and primary and specialty care doctors’ offices.

Despite an earlier than planned opening, the hospital has experienced its share of supply chain disruptions, including for door frames, roofing material and various electrical equipment and components such as switch gears, said Joanna Benning, vice president of support operations and construction.

“Some things have created major setbacks and challenges,” Benning said. “It’s been a patchwork type of approach, but this [hospital] definitely lent itself to creating kind of a multifaceted phasing approach, in which we would start in one area, then we could get going in a different area.”

Both the pandemic and a lawsuit filed by Centegra Health System, which is now merged with Northwestern Medicine, delayed the initial groundbreaking on the hospital, which took place in June 2021.

Once completed, the hospital will offer the Crystal Lake community a local emergency room, something it currently does not have, Benning said.

Crystal Lake Mayor Haig Haleblian called the hospital a “huge positive” for the city and said city staff and leadership has been very impressed by the project overall.

“They got a lot done in a very short period of time,” Haleblian said. “We have a nice relationship with the Mercy system. I’m very happy with how this is going.”

The company has been hiring both staff and medical personnel, said Tyler Killpack, senior director for Mercyhealth’s critical access hospitals. The hospital is expected to employ 150 health care professionals and 500 workers during construction.

Once complete, the Crystal Lake hospital will offer family medicine, orthopedics and sports medicine; gastroenterology; general surgery; cardiology; cancer care; infusion therapy; and physical therapy, according to the website.

So far, Mercyhealth has hired two physicians already working at Mercyhealth sites within the community, and six more have signed to start next year when the hospital opens, Killpack said.

Mercyhealth also hosted a hiring event this week and will be holding more such events in the new year, Benning said.

“We are working hard to recruit physicians,” Killpack said. “But it’s nice to already have some of that infrastructure in place rather than pulling from scratch.”

Much of the physical structure also is complete, but many of the design elements were not yet in place this week. The facility is designed around a large atrium and lobby, with centralized workstations for the convenience of patients and staff, Killpack said.

The campus is comparable in size to the Mercyhealth hospital campuses in Harvard and Walworth, Wisconsin, Killpack said.

Mercyhealth first presented designs to the city in 2017, although the system has wanted to build on that site for more than a decade, Benning said. Before it could build anything, Mercyhealth required approval from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board.

“There’s definitely an advantage to building a new hospital in this day and age,” Killpack said. “The Harvard hospital is a beautiful facility, but it’s also 50 years older. We can’t change some of that functionality.”

The health care system also has begun partnering with Crystal Lake-based Community High School District 155 to provide sports medicine to athletes, Benning said. Other partnerships also could be in the works.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Benning said. “But a lot of pieces come together quickly. It’s a great project.”