New hospital draws rave reviews

Phenomenal, amazing and impressive were among the adjectives used to describe the new North Central Kansas Medical Center by those who had toured the $40.35-million facility.
North Central Kansas Medical Center, which is scheduled to open on November 16, hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house on Friday and those attending had the opportunity to tour the 82,000-square-foot hospital that is located on College Drive.
“Thrilled to death,” Kansas Senator Elaine Bowers said of the opening of the new hospital. “The radiology department, with the new technology, as a woman I am extremely excited.”
Cloud County Health Center broke ground on the new hospital in March 2020, and it was announced that the name would be changed to North Central Kansas Medical Center.
“I actually got a tour when it was just posts. There were no walls and I couldn't visualize it. Now, seeing everything put together is incredible, what this place is going to be able to do. The services it is going to be able to provide,” Heather Gennette said. “As a person with a family who frequents the hospital, to be able to come here and know that my family is going to be taken care of in a beautiful space, is exciting. And I am super excited about the cafeteria, too.”
Johnnie Mastin, a firefighter and EMT with the Concordia Fire Department, said the new hospital is a great thing for the community.
Mastin said he is not going to miss the elevator ride to the emergency room on the fourth floor that is required at the current hospital.
“One of my favorite things I am looking forward to is having the same floor ER. It is going to be an awesome facility for our community. It is going to do nothing but great things.” Mastin said.
Bruce Strait had the opportunity to tour the facility and see all 173 of his photographs that are hanging throughout the building.
“It is just a humbling experience. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would have pictures on the walls of this building,” Strait said. “And the building is just fantastic. It is amazing. What a beautiful facility. It is just an honor.”
Dr. Greg Hattan was impressed by the level of detail that went into the design of the building.
“The treatment areas are very impressive,” Hattan said. “This is really first class, very nice.”
Lucas Chavey offered his thoughts on the new hospital as both a Concordia resident and a member of the CloudCorp board of directors.
“From the standpoint of being a resident, it is just phenomenal to have something like this here. It is state of the art,” Chavey said. “From a CloudCorp standpoint, I remember when we first started having the conversation. We asked all of the entities around the county, what are our needs? What are our priorities? A hospital and schools were the top two and hospital was number one. And we went after it, and now to see that it has actually happened, it is pretty fulfilling.”
Garrett Hood said that the facility is pretty amazing.
“It is state of the art. I am excited for all of the employees and the community. It is nice, very nice,” Hood said.