Portion of road temporarily closed as Morrison hospital expansion begins

MORRISON – The east end of East Knox Street from North Jackson Street to the west drive of Morrison Community Hospital is temporarily closed for the start of the hospital expansion, city officials announced.

The street closure began Jan. 29 and is expected to last through Wednesday, Feb. 5.

A $14 million two-story addition to Morrison Community Hospital was announced in June 2024.

Each floor of the addition will be about 11,000 square feet, doubling the size of the clinic footprint, Morrison Community Hospital CEO Pam Pfister said in December.

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 will address the hospital’s increasing patient volume.

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.

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.