BY JEFF CHUDZINSKI
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — Groundbreaking is about to get underway for a planned $71.8 campus expansion and modernization at Canton-Potsdam Hospital.

“We are going to embark on a transformative project for this hospital with this joint investment venture,” St. Lawrence Health Vice President of Development Brent Bishop said.

“Patients will see no interruption of services when work begins on Monday (Oct. 17), with the only real change being the temporary main entrance and emergency entrances,” Bishop said.

Hospital officials say the project will include a 108,000 square foot expansion that will increase the number of emergency department treatment rooms from 17 to 28 total.

According to St. Lawrence Health Director of Facilities Management Randy VanBrocklin, the change to the temporary entrances will have zero effect on emergency care.

“The temporary entrances will equal our current capacity and will feature multiple drop offs, including for ambulances. So in that regard nothing will change at all and everything will still be easily accessible,” he said.

Those temporary entrances will be on Grove and Leroy Streets, officials say.

Traffic will be rerouted for those entrances to the Cottage and Waverly Street intersection, with the existing main entrance and emergency entrance going offline.

Patients will be able to identify the new entrances easily as hospital staff move the existing signs on Monday, officials said.

Additional signage will be posted along the streets to assist patients and visitors as well, with staff placed around the facilities to help direct patients as well.

Those staff will be in bright yellow vests during the initial days of the project, assisting patients and visitors following the entrance relocations.

Hospital officials also say patients will see an increase in the number of medical/surgical patient beds, from 63 to 78 total.

In addition to the new medical/surgical rooms, patients will also see 60 new private patient rooms that will be 304 square feet, a 28% size increase compared to the existing semi-private patient rooms.

“Right now we expect the majority of the project to be completed in 2024,” Bishop said.

The entire project is slated to be completed in 2025, officials says.

In addition to the new main entrance and expanded emergency department, officials say the expansion plan will also include expanding the main lobby, the addition of a new gift shop and a coffee kiosk.

The hospital expansion will also include a brand new, four-story “patient wing” off the north-west corner of the hospital. The new wing will feature the 60 private, single occupancy patient rooms along with private bathrooms in each patient room, private space for visitors to stay overnight with loved ones and “strategically placed nurses stations,” officials say.

As part of the emergency department expansion, officials say a dedicated ED waiting area will be built along with new triage rooms with a waiting area, four new flex exam rooms and four new resuscitation rooms/trauma rooms.

“We are extremely grateful for the community’s support behind the continued growth of St. Lawrence Health. Without the commitment from the Village of Potsdam and its residents, the full scope of the expansion project could not be realized,” St. Lawrence Health President Donna M. McGregor said in a statement.