Morrison hospital to expand with $14 million addition following groundbreaking

MORRISON — Work on a $14 million two-story addition to Morrison Community Hospital is expected to start soon, its CEO said at a groundbreaking event Thursday.

Morrison Community Hospital CEO Pam Pfister and Hospital Board Chairman Don Beswick addressed a crowd of about 40 people, including area residents, city officials and hospital staff and management.

“You’ve all been instrumental in the past 10 years of our exceptional progress in serving the health care needs of our hospital district and the surrounding county community,” Beswick said. “With your use and support of our facility, we’re once again expanding to accommodate those needs and services for our patients.”

Pfister said she does not expect the cold weather to delay the work.

Each floor of the addition will be about 11,000 square feet, “doubling the size of the current clinic footprint,” Pfister said. The first floor will be used for primary and urgent care services, with 22 exam rooms, three care team workstations and one procedure room. The second-floor addition will connect to the hospital’s medical-surgical unit and remain “an open canvas” for future expansions.

The addition is meant to address the hospital’s increasing patient volume, she said.

“In 2019, I shared that we served approximately 4,000 patients a month,” Pfister said. “Today, we serve over double that number.”

The project is being paid for using existing cash reserves, and work is expected to be completed in January 2026, Pfister said. This is the hospital’s third expansion in the past five years.

The first expansion, completed in 2022, included a new emergency room, eight additional beds in the medical-surgical area, two new operating rooms, upgrades to the radiology department, a new lab, a sterile processing department and additional provider offices in the existing clinic space.

That project cost $23 million and was paid for using a $20 million, 35-year U.S. Department of Agriculture loan with a 2.125% interest rate.

The hospital’s second project – a third operating room – was completed in October 2023, cost $3.3 million and was paid for with cash reserves.

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The 11,000 square foot addition to Morrison Community Hospital will double the size of the current clinic said Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, during a groundbreaking on the hospital campus. (Alex T. Paschal)

“In this profession, we know one thing is for certain, change is constant,” Pfister said. “There is never a crystal ball. Transformation can happen overnight. But our hospital team does a great job of taking a step back, taking a deep breath, and we move forward.”

The newest addition is expected to bring about 10 full-time positions to the hospital, including the addition of Morrison native Dr. Trever Troutman, who will complete his residency in June, Pfister said.

Morrison Community Hospital derives its revenue from its services, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, third-party payers, the self-insured and the hospital taxing district, which includes townships in and around Morrison, as well as the nearby communities of Lyndon and Fenton.

The hospital, at 303 N. Jackson St., provides emergency services; radiology, pharmacy and lab services; medical and surgical inpatient services; rural health clinics for primary and urgent care; specialty physician services in rheumatology, psychiatry, podiatry, endocrinology, otolaryngology, gastroenterology, cardiology, gynecology, pulmonology, urology, dermatology and neurology; inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation; a diabetics program; a skin care clinic; and a wound care program.