Patients at the new Langlade Hospital, scheduled to open in mid-May, may feel more like guests at a Marriott Hotel rather than a high-tech health care facility.
The $45 million, 97,000 square feet facility is scheduled to be turned over to the hospital on April 4—now just eight weeks away—and crews under the direction of Miron Construction are working at a fever pitch.
Hospital Administrator Dave Schneider said today that the second floor, which features patient rooms, intensive care and the birthing center is nearly complete and work is advancing quickly on the main level, which includes outpatient and surgical services along with administrative area.
The project, a joint effort between the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph and Aspirus, will include some very personal and visible touches.
The bright and airy entryway, which will eventually also be the entrance to the adjoining General Clinic, has a soaring two-story stone fireplace.
The chapel, now in an out-of-the-way third-story corner, is being relocated just behind the main registration desk, easily accessible to the public. Stained glass windows salvaged from the present chapel will show the way. Artisan Tom Gallenberg is using wood from a black cherry tree from the original LeRoyer Walkway, which had to be dismantled for the new facility, for the altar, lectern and wooden accents.
“It’s designed to be welcoming,” Heather Stoffel, the project manager, said on a recent tour.
The hospital’s features “front of house,” the public areas, and “back of house,” corridors and rooms accessible only to staff. That will create an uncluttered, yet extremely efficient, traffic flow.
The main level also includes an interior courtyard, conceived as an oasis of green for employees and visitors. There’s a secondary purpose as well, allowing natural light to flood what would otherwise be interior spaces.
The second floor is covered with tough-performing vinyl flooring that resembles hardwood minus the noise and durability issues. Wood-grained nurses stations march down the corridor, with patient rooms ringing the exterior. Each room has double-wide doors, tiled private bathrooms with walk-in showers and sofa sleepers for family members.
The birthing center, accessible through secure doors, has a few special touches as well, including whirlpools for the mothers in labor, and plenty of room for dads and families.
When completed, the hospital will include 23 patient beds, three surgical rooms, imaging laboratory, emergency department, walk-in clinic and the chapel.
There will also be a gift shop, cafe for patients, guests and employees and concierge service.
The May 13 planned opening date will ring in another phase of the project. The existing hospital, which comes literally within inches of the new hospital, will be razed, allowing completion of the entrance canopy. The General Clinic must also be retrofitted for main access from the new entrance.
The hospital hinted at construction of a new facility for years, with planning advancing quickly after a deal was reached with the city of Antigo that placed it on the grounds of the old municipal pool. The actual announcement, made jointly by Aspirus and the Religious Hospitallers came in March, 2010 with ground-breaking on Nov. 1, 2010.
The hospital was designed with the help of Sg2, an international health care think tank, with unprecedented input from staff on everything from the placement of sinks and electrical outlets to hand-washing stations and patient traffic flow.
The building was designed by Eppstein Uhen, a nationally-recognized architectural firm that specializes in health care facilities.