Long Prairie medical campus open house set for Oct. 9; building opens Oct. 14

The dream of CentraCare Health – Long Prairie’s much-anticipated medical campus has become reality. A public open house will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 9 at 50 CentraCare Drive, just down the street from the existing hospital. Tours will be available and refreshments will be served.

The opening is a culmination of two years of fundraising and 16 months of construction. The $30.8 million 65,000 square foot medical campus has many enhanced features including:

• 12 private rooms for inpatients and outpatients to receive services for medical, surgical, pediatric, coronary, obstetrics and newborn care
• Eight observation rooms for up to 23-hour stays and emergency and outpatient services
• Two dedicated labor, delivery and recovery suites
• Two surgical suites
• In-house MRI
• Decentralized nursing stations to enhance efficiency and improve patient monitoring
• Gift shop
• Healing garden
• Chapel
• Bistro, which is open to the public!

The construction of the medical campus was no small feat. It took roughly 100,000 hours of craftworker time to complete. Eighty percent of the construction workforce live within 60 miles of Long Prairie. About 300,000 cubic yards of earth was moved to prepare the site and the building includes 20 miles of wire.

A remarkable part of the opening of this medical campus has been the support of the greater Long Prairie community. CentraCare Health – Long Prairie had a $2 million “Building a Healthy Community” capital campaign goal which was surpassed in 2016. To date, 511 donors have pledged $2.55 million with the lead gift of $500,000 coming from The Rosen Family Foundation. CentraCare Health employees pledged over $400,000 with additional large gifts coming from Lee and Jan Hanson Family; Farmers Union Industries, LLC; Paul Van Gorp, M.D. and Bobbi Knutson; Rodger and Marlys Bense; and Dan’s Prize, Inc. Community members, local businesses and civic organizations along with many Long Prairie area residents contributed over $650,000.

“We are so excited to see all of our dreams and hard work coming to fruition. The opening of this medical campus ensures top-notch medical care continues in our community for many years to come,” said Dan Swenson, administrator. “I look forward to celebrating this significant milestone with many of our community members.”

Following the open house date, the hospital will open and patients will be transferred on Saturday, Oct. 14. The rest of the campus and clinic will open at 7 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 16. The phone number remains the same so appointments can be made by calling 320-732-2131.