Otto Kaiser Memorial Hospital will host a groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday November 19 at 2 p.m. on the hospital grounds. The ceremony will officially begin construction on a $3.1 million hospital upgrade project, which is expected to be completed over the next year.

Hospital officials have obtained a United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development Community Facilities loan to fund the project, which entails constructing a brand new physicians building and upgrading the current emergency room.

With the added space, the hospital will not only be able to serve patients with more room, but will be able to provide additional services, hospital Administrator Nancy Kinkler said.

Aside from the hospital’s three main physicians having brand new facilities, one of the main benefits of the project will be the additional office space that will become available for specialist doctors like cardiologists.

"That will allow me to bring in more specialists on a clinic-type basis. Right now the clinic here inside the hospital is pretty well full," Kinkler explained.

Kaiser Home Health also will be moved into the old physicians building, and other departments in the hospital will be shifted around while the hospital is completely renovated.

When they’re finished, hospital officials expect to have the emergency room’s current capacity doubled.

"The renovated emergency room will have a separate walk-in entrance. We’ll have a larger waiting room with a private registration area and then we’ll actually have a triage room where they’ll come in and get vital signs taken. That should be almost immediate where they’ll get looked at by a nurse."

Almost the entire project will be funded by the USDA’s low-interest, long-range loan, and the hospital has issued revenue bonds secure the note.

Board members also are putting $225,000 of the hospital’s savings toward the project.