CentraCare is about to flip the switch on a three-story expansion at CentraCare Plaza in St. Cloud, a roughly 225,000-square-foot buildout with a price tag just shy of $194 million. The project delivers a significantly larger ambulatory surgery center, a 60,000-square-foot outpatient rehabilitation building, and new specialty space for orthopedics and neurosciences. Inside are multiple operating rooms, an on-site sterilization department and patient perks that feel more hotel than hospital, including a medspa, café and gift gallery. Public tours are set for next Thursday as the system gets ready to welcome its first patients in the new space later this month.
What the expansion includes
The redesign centers on a new ambulatory surgery hub and a separate rehab facility that together account for about 225,000 square feet of fresh construction on the Plaza campus, according to McGough. The three-story surgery center more than doubles outpatient surgical capacity, adding five operating rooms and one hybrid OR, 24 pre and post-op and PACU bays, plus a dedicated sterile processing department. Next door, the single-story, 60,000-square-foot rehabilitation building is set up with hydrotherapy and expanded gym spaces so patients can stay in one zone instead of trekking across campus for imaging and specialty care.
Tours and timing
CentraCare is inviting the public in for a free open house next Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Plaza's River West entrance, with parking recommended in the River West lot, as reported by KNSI. Visitors will be able to walk through the new surgery and rehab areas, peek at the medspa and café, and step into clinical zones that are usually off limits. St. Cloud LIVE reports that CentraCare expects the expanded facility to start seeing patients later this month, with the official opening scheduled for June 29.
How care will change
The overhaul is designed to pull more services under one roof and cut down on the shuffle between sites. Neurology services, including CentraCare’s integrated pain and headache center, will move from the River campus and other off-campus spots into the Plaza, and orthopedics will gain on-site imaging and X-ray suites to limit patient transfers, as reported by KSTP. The project also relocates independent practices, including Midsota Plastic Surgery, into the Plaza so related services sit side by side. The investment mirrors a broader national trend toward beefing up outpatient capacity so hospitals can reserve inpatient beds for the sickest patients, a shift noted by Becker's Hospital Review.
Community and jobs
City documents show the Plaza expansion came together through multiple building permits that covered both the multilevel ambulatory addition and the single-story rehab building, and that state licensing reviews for the ambulatory surgery center were underway while foundations and structural steel went up, according to City of St. Cloud records. Local coverage notes that more than 120 construction companies touched the project and that the site averaged more than 250 workers a day at peak, with CentraCare projecting about 27 new staff positions tied to the expansion over the next several years, per St. Cloud LIVE. The Plaza campus is expected to keep evolving in the coming years, with nearby housing and medical school-related development on deck.
Bottom line
For patients in central Minnesota, the Plaza expansion is a bet that more care can stay local and outpatient. By clustering surgery, rehab and specialty clinics on one campus, CentraCare says it aims to move people through the system faster, reduce transfers and make routine procedures and therapy a little less of a logistical headache.
