Clay County Medical Center gets major upgrade with 44,000 square-feet of additions, renovations
Upgrades deliver “far and above our expectations”
Clay Center represents a rarity in Kansas these days. Unlike many communities faced with the threat of dwindling populations, Clay Center’s has remained steady as younger generations moved back to take over family businesses and farms. For the greater Clay County area to maintain its vibrancy and retain these new residents, it must provide valuable new services and high-quality healthcare.
A recent upgrade to Clay County Medical Center is helping this part of north central Kansas to do just that.
Built in 1968, Clay County Medical Center needed upgrades. Initially, the facility’s
leadership planned to remodel 8,000-10,000 square feet in the surgical wing. When stakeholders sat down to go through detailed cost projections, the scope of the project expanded. Today, the medical center boasts a new 29,000-square-foot addition along with 15,000 square feet of remodeled space—this provided a better value and proved a more cost-effective solution for the hospital than its original plan.
“Working with McCownGordon, we were able to come up with a project far and above our expectations or the community’s expectations,” said Austin Gillard, CEO, Clay County Medical Center. “They’ve got a great team of people in the local Manhattan office. They are energetic and brought tons of new ideas and energy to our project.”
Gillard said the planning was highly collaborative. As Clay County Medical Center stakeholders discussed options with the architect (HFG Architecture) and McCownGordon, the McCownGordon team was able to provide real-time cost projections for the various ideas put on the table.
“They were able to plug in numbers as we were talking and examining space by square footage,” Gillard said. “We were very, very impressed with all the preconstruction knowledge and framework McCownGordon’s health facilities group brought to the table for the Clay County Medical Center project.”
The project included:
• Upgraded operating rooms and surgical suites
• New inpatient rooms
• New obstetrics suites
• New lobby and registration area
• Expanded specialty clinic with nine new exam rooms
• Increased laboratory space
Although some change orders were needed during construction, McCownGordon took a proactive approach, bringing viable alternatives to the client.
“Working with McCownGordon was pretty much flawless,” Gillard said. “They gave Clay County Medical Center a lot of input and guidance into decisions, which we really appreciated.”
The existing facility remained open during construction. Although some departments needed to relocate while work was being performed, phases were carefully planned to lessen the impact.
Before the upgrades, residents regularly traveled out of town for specialty care and routine outpatient procedures. Now that the project is complete, new specialists are coming to Clay Center and bringing additional services to the region, keeping money in the local economy and creating new jobs.
“We had a lot of people leaving town to see their specialists and to get general surgery or orthopedic surgery on an outpatient basis,” Gillard said. “With the renovation / expansion project, we’re able to have 28 different specialists up here each month, so patients aren’t traveling out of town.”
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