Tri-County Health Care, based in Wadena, recently announced that they will be undergoing a major update. The company is in the planning stages of a major construction project to build a brand-new healthcare facility.

Tri-County Health Care was first established in 1925 with Wesley Hospital in downtown Wadena and later expanded to five area towns. Last week, the company announced plans to either remodel their current building or, preferably, construct a brand new facility in Wadena.

“For the expectations of ourselves, for our patients, for our community, the health of the communities, and meeting our mission, we need to make sure that we can be the best we want to be and can be in everything that we do, and we feel like right now our present facility has the potential in the future to restrict us a little bit and hold us back,” said Joel Beiswenger, Tri-County Health Care CEO. “So we just don’t want that to happen.”

According to a release, their current building is outdated, inefficient, and cannot accommodate their growing services and changing healthcare needs. Tri-County is looking at various land options around the city of Wadena and they hope to break ground on the project in early spring of 2020.

“We are landlocked, both from an external perspective being surrounded really by streets, and we would have to do some significant adjustments to the neighborhood to make that happen – but we’re also landlocked internally. Many of our key departments need expansion, need updating to meet the patients’ needs long into the future,” added Beiswenger.

One of the land options that Tri-County Health Care is looking at is the Wadena County Fairgrounds. They will be holding a meeting for the community to learn more about the project with Wadena County officials, the county fair board, and the city of Wadena, on Tuesday, April 2nd, at 7:00 p.m. at Karvonen Funeral Home.

By — Rachel Johnson

Lakeland News Lead Reporter