With the neighboring cities of DeKalb and Sycamore steadily increasing in population, Kishwaukee Community Hospital is cramped for space on busy nights.

Construction of a new, $102 million facility is under way, which should go a long way to fixing that problem. The construction is still in the moving-dirt-around stage, but the new addition to the hospital is expected to open in 2007.

The new facility, to be located at the same address, 626 Bethany Road, will be 230,000 square feet, 60,000 square feet larger than the current hospital.

“In the winter it gets real busy with the students and elderly people getting sick easier, and there have been times when we have had to keep people in the halls,” said a Kishwaukee phlebotomist who wished to remain anonymous.

The goal is to meet the industry standard of all patients having their own rooms.

In addition to this leap forward in accommodations, there will also be more spacious operating rooms which will be filled with updated equipment.

Specifically, a new MRI machine, a cardiac catheterization lab and simple elements like easy-to-decipher signage will furnish the hospital, said Sharon Emanuelson, director of marketing and public relations for the hospital.

The principal goal is to aim for better patient care and more accomplished employees.

“The new hospital will advance a vision of unsurpassed health care excellence that not only will better serve our communities, but which also will retain and attract more medical specialists, primary care physicians, nurses and other clinicians,” Emanuelson said.

The purpose of the new hospital is for functional reasons.

“[The hospital will] continue the tradition of local community ownership,” Emanuelson said.

There have been ideas about additional perks that could surprise patients.

“There have been talks about having people come in with pets and having people come in to do the patient’s hair and nails,” said a Kishwaukee medical laboratory technician who wished to remain anonymous.