Rochelle Community Hospital hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the ongoing expansion of its Health and Wellness Building on Monday, Oct. 20.

Construction started in August on the south side of the RCH campus to merge its Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Therapy departments and Physical and Occupational Therapy departments into one location to serve all rehabilitation and therapy patients.

The expansion will take place on both the top and bottom floors and will consist of a new gym space below for rehab and therapy, and more space above for Primary Care operations and RCH’s newly launched Behavioral Health department.

“The progress has been really encouraging,” RCH CEO Karen Tracy said. “We might be a week or two behind at most. The weather has been in our favor. Our team has been working so hard. We’re really proud of the construction workers and how fast they’re putting things together. We’re doing pretty good and I think we’re still on track for completion in April or May.”

Tracy said the merging of the therapy and rehabilitation departments will allow for more competitive services and the ability to serve a higher volume of patients.

Along with consolidating all rehab and therapy services into one area, the move is being made with possible changes in mind to the north portion of RCH’s building, which currently houses physical and occupational therapy.

That part of the building was built in the 1940s. RCH was recently made aware of infrastructure needs in that location, the oldest part of its campus.

“We’ve done so much talking about construction, and it feels good to see action,” Tracy said. “The planning was all beneficial, because it was the foundation to moving forward. To me, it means that this hospital is thriving and going to be here for years to come. I’m excited most by this project being a starting point to a bigger project. We’re continuing to work on the eventual bigger project at the north end. We want to be thoughtful about how we plan that.”

RCH has moved the Health and Wellness Building entrance to the west off Third Street between the emergency entrance and the Health and Wellness Building. Tracy said the community has been gracious with the changes that have been made due to construction.

Staff members of the involved departments were on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony. Staff members have provided input on RCH’s upcoming facility changes.

“We have great staff,” Tracy said. “They’ve been really cooperative with the work and we’ve given them a voice and input on what we’re doing. Our architects have done a fantastic job of incorporating staff’s comments and making sure the functionality is there.”