Bob Fitzgerald, director of operations for Kraus-Anderson Construction Company’s Bemidji office, says that the expansion of the Sanford Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Center is an important project for the residents of the Minnesota city of Bemidji.
And Fitzgerald is happy that his company is the one that will soon begin construction work on the $9 million project, one that will bring a two-story, 46,385-square-foot expansion to the sports medicine center run by Sanford Health.
“This is an incredibly important project for the area,” Fitzgerald said. “It expands the healthcare presence in our community. It expands the services that Sanford Health can offer to the community. People want to be able to get the highest-quality healthcare in their backyard. They don’t want to have to go anywhere else to get that. This project will help make that a reality.”
But how did Kraus-Anderson land this important project?
Fitzgerald pointed to the company’s history with Sanford Health. Kraus-Anderson has a relationship of more than 20 years with Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota. The company has completed more than 25 projects alone on the Bemidji campus that will be home to the sports medicine center expansion.
At the same time, Kraus-Anderson knows how to work at medical sites without disturbing the ongoing operations at these facilities. That, too, was a key consideration for Sanford Health, Fitzgerald said.
“It is critical that you know how to take care of their ongoing operations,” Fitzgerald said. “Our ability to know how their existing facility works, and how to use our healthcare experience to make sure that we didn’t disturb patient treatment and care, was critical in their decision.”
Designed by AECOM of Minneapolis, the expansion is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2013.
Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota has more than 1,450 employees, 75 doctors and 118 beds in its medical facilities. It is part of the Sanford Health System based in Fargo, N.D., and Sioux Falls, S.D. It ranks as the largest rural not-for-profit health care system in the country.
