PeaceHealth broke ground on a new rehabilitation hospital in Springfield Wednesday.
The new, 66,000 square-foot facility will help patients recover, and relearn skills they lost from an injury, a stroke, or other life-altering event.
PeaceHealth Chief Administrative Officer Alicia Beymer said the hospital will bring specialty services, such as traumatic brain injury treatment, closer to patients who previously have had to seek care out of state.
"This traumatic brain injury unit will be embedded in our in-patient hospital,” Beymer said. “We'll be able to help patients stay in the area and receive the care that they need."
PeaceHealth anticipates the new rehab hospital will serve about 1,200 patients a year. The average patient will stay two weeks, and will have access to apartments where they can practice daily living tasks before they return home, specially designed rooms for dialysis, and programs geared toward patients recovering from stroke and amputation.
The hospital, on PeaceHealth’s RiverBend campus, will be operated by Lifepoint, a national company that has similar facilities in Western Washington.
Beymer said the new rehab center will also help PeaceHealth ease the strain on its other hospital, RiverBend, by opening up 30 or more beds. RiverBend’s emergency department has struggled over the last several months with a surge in patients, which has led to delays for some in-patient surgeries, and increased the amount of time patients spend boarding.
The new rehab center is scheduled to open its doors in July 2026.
“It’s a win, win,” Beymer said. “We open up specialized service for in-patient rehab, and we will open additional medical beds at RiverBend.”