Since 1899, Frankfort hospital has been serving the residents of Clinton County. Now, more than 100 years later, the new Indiana University Health Frankfort Hospital will open a new state-of-the-art critical access facility on Monday, November 9.
“We have had this need in the community for a long time,” said Surgery Manager Leslie Smith. “I started out with St. Vincent and transitioned to IU, which was a great opportunity. Never would I have thought that I would be involved in building a hospital, but it has been a remarkable opportunity just to see everything that goes into it.
“We are super-excited that we were able to be so involved as leaders and team members for this opportunity of a new building,” she added.
Smith said her staff is already excited about coming to the new hospital.
“When we were able to come over to the new building, it was a very cool moment for them to be able to see Cardboard City in real life,” said Smith.
The final move and the opening are actually going to be a two-day affair.
“The eighth is going to be a Sunday,” Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for IU Health Frankfort Marilyn Riley said. “That is the day we move our patients from the existing hospital to the new. So, all of our in-patients and our emergency department patients will all go that day.
“Then, on Monday the ninth, we will be officially open,” she continued. “So, anyone who is coming for an outpatient lab, x-ray, therapy, they will come to the new building on Monday morning.”
Riley says the public will be amazed at how beautiful the new building is.
“We really worked hard to bring in those natural colors to make it warm and comforting,” said Riley. “When people come to the hospital, it is usually not a good day. We want to make this a healing place. The color schemes and the way that is was designed has that in mind.”
Riley said after the transition to the new building, it will take time to decommission the old hospital and create a parking area on its footprint.
“We want to make sure that our community knows how to find us,” said Riley. “Coming in off of Jackson Street or 39 between the Purcifull Building and then straight back, you will see arrows kind of routing and turning in front of the new building. We have some parking spaces that we have secured right in front of the building for people who need to park close. We do know that parking could be a potential challenge, so we have some processes in place to help with that. We will have our security officers helping people get to the building. If they need to park a little farther away, we have a couple of ways that can help.”
Riley added that once the old hospital comes down, they will be able to have a nice, large parking space. Depending on timing, they will be able to turn that into some green space by planting trees and flowers.
A stained-glass window from the old building’s reception area has already been installed in the chapel of the new facility, and bricks from the old building will later be made available.
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Senior Public Relations Coordinator for IU Health Frankfort, IU Health Arnett and IU Health White Memorial Rhonda Jones. “Especially these days and for a community like Frankfort because more and more we are seeing smaller communities losing their health care facilities. And, here, IU Health and the community has come together to invest in bringing something new and viable for the citizens, and it’s really important and needed. We are thrilled that we are doing this.”
There will be no open house event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.