March 28, 2024
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Millinocket hospital rehab center project on track

MILLINOCKET – Its new roof is finished, inside walls are roughed in, and a fiberglass pool is installed, so it looks like Millinocket Regional Hospital’s $1.15 million wellness and physical therapy center will be open by April 1, officials said Tuesday.

Construction on the White Birch Medical Center at 899 Central St., the new site of most of MRH’s occupational and physical therapy work, is going just fine, said Dale McLaughlin, the hospital’s director of plant operations.

“I am hoping to have it done around the end of March. We are going to have an up-to-date rehab center complete with therapy pool and plenty of space,” McLaughlin said Tuesday. “We have been cramped for space for some time.”

As part of the plan, the hospital’s physical therapy space in Medical Office Building 2 at 200 Somerset St. has been converted into office space.

Hospital officials announced the plan in December 2005. They said the physical therapy space is the oldest department in the hospital and had not been renovated since the late 1970s.

Combining the new White Birch center with the Facility of Occupational and Rehabilitative Medicine, or FORM, on Connecticut Avenue in a space designed for all services would further improve efficiency while solving the lack of privacy and good work flow at the hospital, they said.

“Until now, rehabilitation services have been fragmented in several locations. Now they will be in one place where they will be able to maximize resources,” said David Nelson, the hospital’s director of community relations.

Millinocket might see more patients from outlying areas coming to the hospital for its physical rehabilitation or exercise services, Nelson said.

“For a community of our size to have a hospital-based wellness team is fairly unique,” he said. “There are only a few locations around the state who offer rehab and fitness aquatics in the community.”

MRH serves about 8,520 people in the Katahdin region, which includes East Millinocket, Medway, Millinocket and outlying areas.

Correction: This article appeared on page B2 in the State edition.

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