Pending approval from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, Taylorville Memorial Hospital will begin construction in June on a two-story, approximately 97,000-square-foot building that will replace most of the current hospital.

The new structure will be built on the current hospital campus at 201 E. Pleasant St. and will be fully complete by early 2021.

"The hospital is of vital importance to the community," said Jim Adcock, chairman of the nonprofit hospital's board of directors. "Taylorville Memorial Hospital, formerly St. Vincent Memorial Hospital, has served this community well for more than 100 years. This investment will provide improved, modern facilities for patient care and a better environment for our staff and doctors to work. I look forward to seeing it become a reality."

The construction will include 25 private patient rooms. Three of the rooms will be larger to provide additional family space and will be fitted with overhead ceiling-mounted power lift equipment to help move patients from their beds to the bathrooms. They'll have larger bathrooms and showers to assist patients who might need help to shower.

The inpatient unit will have a family lounge area, a multipurpose activity room and a kitchen and dining area for patients and families as well as a chapel and meditation space.

The new facility will also have space for outpatient services, laboratory, educational conference rooms and administrative offices. The main hospital kitchen will be in the new facility, with space for a cafeteria and dining area.

A rehab services area will offer physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy.

A specialty clinic will include space for out-of-town physician specialists to see patients.

“We believe in providing innovative and patient-centered healthcare, and this modernization project demonstrates our continued commitment to provide the people we serve with a state-of-the-art hospital for decades to come," said Kim Bourne, president and CEO of Taylorville Memorial Hospital.

The construction will be completed in two phases. The first phase is expected to be ready in early 2020 and will see the opening of the patient rooms, outpatient services, therapy services, laboratory, pharmacy, specialty clinic and central utility plant. The second phase is targeted for an early 2021 opening and will include food and nutrition services, administrative offices and conference rooms. The five-story building, originally built more than six decades ago in 1954, will be torn down during the second phase.

The two-phase approach will ensure "continuity of all patient services during construction and will have minimal impact on the newer portions of the hospital built in 2011," Bourne said.

O'Shea Builders in Springfield is the general contractor. Architects from BSA Life Structures in St. Louis are the designers.