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The final steel beam for the Mary Lanning Healthcare Medical Office Building is signed during a ceremony March 31.

Eric Barber, Mary Lanning Healthcare CEO, speaks Thursday before a beam signing ceremony for the Medical Office Building.

Mark Callahan, Mary Lanning Healthcare chief operating officer, speaks as a steel beam for the Medical Office Building is signed Thursday during a ceremony outside the hospital.

The final steel beam for the Mary Lanning Healthcare Medical Office Building is signed during a ceremony March 31.

Eric Barber, Mary Lanning Healthcare CEO, speaks Thursday before a beam signing ceremony for the Medical Office Building.

Mark Callahan, Mary Lanning Healthcare chief operating officer, speaks as a steel beam for the Medical Office Building is signed Thursday during a ceremony outside the hospital.

Community members who had a hand in the expansion of Mary Lanning Healthcare’s Medical Services Building came out to sign the final steel beam of the structure March 31 before it is lifted into place.

Members of the Mary Lanning executive team, the hospital’s board of trustees, Chief Construction, Hastings College, Bryan College of Health Sciences, Five Points Bank and more attended the beam-signing ceremony, marking the addition’s progress as the last piece of the building’s skeleton is added.

Once complete, the addition will double the size of the building and it will be known as the hospital’s Medical Office Building. The $25 million project will add 64,803 square feet to the 63,957-square-foot building.

Contractors broke ground for the project on Oct. 4, 2021, and the building is scheduled to be complete in March 2023.

Eric Barber, president and CEO of Mary Lanning, thanked the community partners who made the expansion possible.

“This is not just for Mary Lanning,” he said. “This is for the entire community of Hastings.”

One highlight of the expansion will be a partnership between Mary Lanning, Hastings College and the Bryan College to create a new nursing program on the third floor of the new addition.

Students will enroll in the Bryan College, which is based in Lincoln, but live at Hastings College, take foundation courses there and enjoy an undergraduate college experience as part of the HC community. Clinical instruction and experiences will begin in the sophomore year and will be provided by Bryan faculty at Mary Lanning.

Mark Callahan, MLH chief operating officer, said the expansion project is on schedule and they hope to have classes with Bryan up and going by fall 2023.

The second floor of the addition will be filled by various clinics that are housed in leased building spaces across the community. Plans include relocating Mary Lanning’s family practice clinic at Crosier Park Professional Center and other clinics currently spread throughout the city to the building.

“We needed the space,” Callahan said. “We have clinics throughout Hastings. This will provide better overall care for patients and families.”

Hospital executives want to develop a pharmacy on the first floor.

Callahan said they don’t want to compete with the other pharmacies in the city, but offering on-site options for prescription medications would be more convenient for patients.

The idea of expanding the Medical Services Building started 8 1/2 years ago shortly after Barber joined Mary Lanning. Callahan said a lot of donations and partnerships had to be secured to move the project forward, and he’s glad to see the results.

“We’ve had a lot of people come together,” he said. “It’s exciting to see this happen.”

While dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has been tough across the country, it has been a galvanizing event for Mary Lanning Healthcare.

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