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The groundbreaking for Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ expansion of its Lincoln campus was in August 2020, but work actually started in March of that year, the same month that the coronavirus pandemic caused virtually everything in the city to shut down.
Dan Griess, Madonna’s vice president of facilities and ancillary services, called the past two years “probably the most difficult time in my career.”
“If someone would’ve told me that I was going to start a project in March of 2020 and that that was going to be a great idea, I would have just laughed,” Griess said. “It’s been tough, to be honest with you.”
But Griess said Madonna has done some “amazing things” in the past two years, and it showed off the fruits of its labor on Thursday.
A patient room in the long-term spinal care unit, part of the three-story, 112,000 square-foot addition to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ Lincoln Campus.
Lounge areas with tables and seating adjacent to a new cafeteria are part of the three-story, 112,000 square-foot addition to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ Lincoln Campus.
The hospital, which provides care and rehabilitation for patients who have suffered traumatic brain and spinal injuries, as well as those who have suffered strokes and other conditions, held a grand opening and ribbon cutting for its $57 million expansion project, which includes a new, three-story, 112,000-square-foot patient wing added onto the existing 460,000-square-foot hospital at 5401 South St.
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Paul Dongilli Jr., Madonna’s president and CEO, said the expansion will “create a state-of-the-art campus that truly reflects Madonna’s national reputation of excellence in the science and medicine of rehabilitation.”
It also will bring the Lincoln facilities up to par with Madonna’s facility in Omaha, which to some degree was the inspiration for the upgrade in Lincoln, Griess said.
“We took into account a number of things that we learned from the Omaha campus experience,” he said.
A commercial brick oven is part of the new cafeteria in the addition to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ Lincoln Campus.
The 59 new patient rooms that replace ones that were built in the 1970s are bigger and have modern features such as larger doors with automatic openers that are more convenient for people in wheelchairs. Hallways and common areas are more open and there are level floors throughout, making it easier for patients to navigate. There also is a new kitchen and cafeteria, a new main entrance and a new concourse to the patient tower.
The changes are aimed at allowing patients to be more independent and providing more room for staff and families.
The first patients will start moving into the new rooms June 1, and then Madonna will embark on a second phase of the project, which involves repurposing 50,000 square feet of existing patient rooms into storage, support space for staff, a new therapy gym, a business center and two transitional living apartments that can be used by patient families. The full project is expected to be complete sometime next year.
Patient rooms and bathrooms at the new addition to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ Lincoln Campus include accessibility features such as zero-entry showers and revamped layouts for ease of use.
“This new facility will integrate the latest in rehabilitation programming and technology directly into the care of patients,” Dongilli said, and will serve as “a beacon of hope for those who come to us with the goal of returning to their families.”
The construction process itself, which went on throughout the pandemic, albeit with some delays, provided a pick-me-up, he said.
“As we struggled to provide care for patients during this time, to look out the windows and see literally the building rise out of the ground just provided such a sense of hope for everyone — patients, families and staff alike,” Dongilli said.
Dan Griess, Madonna’s vice president of facilities and ancillary services, gives a tour Thursday of the spinal care wing, part of the three-story, 112,000 square-foot addition to the Lincoln Campus.
That sense of hope is important for people who come to the facility in “less than celebratory” circumstances, said Alex McKiernan, a Madonna board member who spent time at the hospital after a serious car accident in 2014 left him partially paralyzed.
“Madonna is more than a place, it’s a mindset. Madonna is alive and overflowing with healing, recovery and triumph,” McKiernan said.
“And I am overjoyed to see its walls expand.”
Madonna paid for the project itself, putting about 80% of the money needed into a reserve fund and then seeking donations for the rest.
Dongilli said the goal had been $10 million in fundraising, which it surpassed as of last week, raising $10,125,000 to date.
Photos: A historical look back at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals
Sister Henrietta Jundt assists painter from Painter’s Union in 1958. That year, the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton, South Dakota, purchased a 24-acre campus, including the Bailey Hospital and Sanatorium buildings, to open a long-term care facility for the elderly in Lincoln. They choose the name Madonna in honor of the Blessed Mother and provided services according to the Benedictine values the hospital continues to follow today. Known as the Madonna Home, the facility begins to earn its reputation for excellence.
Madonna’s first brochure from 1959.
An early Madonna flier from 1959.
In 1965, Sister Phyllis Hunhoff is named the new administrator for Madonna Home. Although the mission was originally to serve the elderly in a long-term care setting, Madonna soon evolves to meet the growing need for physical medicine and rehabilitation programs to help people of all ages regain independence and live in their communities.
As an early leader in this specialization, in 1966 Madonna begins offering rehabilitation services. That same year, Madonna receives the nation’s first Medicare certification
Sister Margaret, one of the many Marion Sisters who worked at Madonna, gets her first Medicare check in the U.S. in 1966.
Adelyn Beaty, Madonna’s first nursing director, in the late 1960s.
In 1971, Madonna constructs a new 132-bed facility, the St. Joseph building, for short-term care .The Madonna Foundation is established in the same year. By the early 1970s, Madonna is the acknowledged rehabilitation leader in Lancaster County, serving over 400 patients a year in a designated skilled certified area. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and recreation therapy services are included in Madonna’s interdisciplinary approach to care.
The hospital tears down the old St. James building in 1976 and builds a new 120-bed unit, St. James Hall, in its place.
Marsha Lommel is named director of Rehabilitation Services in 1978.
In 1979, Madonna becomes licensed as a hospital and opens a 22-bed stroke and brain injury unit.
Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or [email protected].
On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
