Salem Township Hospital continues to move forward with building improvements.   

Hospital President Stephanie Hilton-Siebert announced at Wednesday's board meeting that the Illinois Department of Public Health has approved the design for the roof replacement project.  She reports Shores Contractors will soon begin work on removal and replacement of the attic and roof over the 1942 section of the building.    Hilton-Siebert anticipates it will take five months to complete the project.    Shores has been awarded a 535-thousand dollar contract to complete the project.  It is required to bring that section of the building up to code. 

Hilton-Siebert says the board is also moving forward with the generator project.  "We are currently working on the generator building with our engineers KJWW of Rock Island.  We will be putting that out for bid," Hilton-Siebert said.  We are purchasing two new generators that will be used for any type of emergency power outages of the hospital.  As we continue to build, we need larger generators to be able to power everything."   The board awarded a $542,000 bid for the purchase of the generators.  It was $3,000 higher than the other bid, but the board felt the higher price was justified because of the availability of local service and a two year warranty instead of one. 

Before the generator project moves forward, the hospital will be relocating its mobile MRI unit and developing a new parking lot across the street from the new front entrance.  The new lot will contain 45 parking spaces.  Hilton-Siebert says they will be used primarily by employees who will lose a parking area where the new generator building will be located.  The lot will initially be a non-permanent surface to allow settling before a permanent surface is applied.  Bids will soon be sought be sought on both the generator building and the parking lot.   The board awarded Livesay Electric a $10,500 contract for installation of lighting for the new parking lot and an adjoining memorial area.  

Hilton-Siebert congratulated the nutrition department for being in 100-percent compliance in a recent inspection by the Marion County Health Department.

The hospital has received a $34,354 check from its liability insurance carrier, the Illinois Provider Trust, due to the hospital's good experience record.