Altru expands Lake Region clinic

• Devils Lake Altru clinic rendering

Devils Lake Altru clinic rendering

Talk about it

Construction is set to begin in a few weeks on a $10.3 million expansion and renovation of Altru Health System’s Lake Region Clinic in Devils Lake, the group said Wednesday.

“We currently have a high patient volume,” said spokeswoman Sarah Kotelnicki. The expansion is necessary to continue serving the community efficiently, she said.

Besides making room for more patients, the clinic will also make room for more physicians and services.

The 27,000-square-foot, two-story addition will adjoin the existing clinic. Altru, based in Grand Forks, expects construction will be completed in fall 2012, but the addition be functional by the summer.

The clinic currently employs 65 physicians, nurses and support staff, but Altru doesn’t know how many more jobs will be created as part of the expansion.

“The number of new employees will grow with the number of care providers that are hired,” says Kaye Nelsen, a supervisor at the Lake Region Clinic.

If a specific need is identified, Nelsen said the clinic will recruit more employees.

Krotelnicki said recruiting more family physicians is one goal the clinic wants to meet.

Floor makeover

The facility’s main floor will also be the focus of an extensive remodeling effort. Interior design work will be completed to give the clinic a more welcoming appearance to visitors.

Kotelnicki said mammography and therapy will be relocated to the 13,000-square-foot area.

The clinic’s information systems will be upgraded so that large files, such as digital images from X-Ray machines, can be placed in the clinic’s information system and accessed without the hassle of slow transfer speeds.

Similar technological upgrades will be applied to the medical record system and equipment such as electrocardiogram machines, which record the electrical activity of the heart.

Service expansion

Certain services will also be expanded with the renovation. Laboratory, oncology, pharmacy and specialty services are among those seeing growth.

One specialty service that is expected to see more use after the renovation is telemedicine. Telemedicine is the use of video conferencing to exchange medical information. Patients can sit in an office in one hospital and visit with a physician hundreds of miles away in another.

Ian Watson, administrative director of regional service for Altru, said “There are a large range of visits that can be conducted through the use of telemedicine.” He said this method of consultation would be beneficial to patients who need to see specialists without having to drive long distances to do so.

Patients using the telemedicine service would be charged a small facility fee and receive billing from the specialist.

“This would be very comparable to an office visit charge,” says Cheryl Fischer, a supervisor at the Lake Region Clinic.

Watson warns that video conferences do not replace an in-person visit to a doctor. “But it limits the driving people will do out of town,” he aid.

Reach Jewett at (701) 787-6736; (800) 477-6572, ext. 736; or send e-mail to bjewett@gfherald.com

Tags: devils lake, updates, news, altru, business, health