Sam Miller, president and CEO of Crusader Community Health, talks to people gathered on Thursday, June 9, 2022, for a groundbreaking on an expansion to its Belvidere Clinic. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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BELVIDERE — Crusader Community Health is expanding its Belvidere Clinic and recruiting more providers to serve the community at the facility.
The health care provider, along with Schmeling Construction Co., Hagney Architects, Belvidere-Boone County Growth Dimensions and dignitaries from Belvidere and Boone County broke ground on Thursday on a nearly 3,000-square-foot expansion to the clinic at 1050 Logan Ave.
“There’s a lot of underserved in this country, millions and millions,” Mayor Clinton Morris said. “This expansion and Crusader Health allows the city to contribute solutions, in some small way at least within our community.”
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The Belvidere Clinic opened in 2004 and serves more than 5,000 residents every year. The existing facility is 7,600 square feet and one of the busiest clinics per square foot on Crusader’s roster of eight locations, said Sam Miller, president and CEO of Crusader.
“We keep adding more providers and more providers, and finally we ran out of space,” Miller said. “I think we’ve remodeled two or three times to get more exam rooms and more space and we’re really out of room now.”
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Crusader Community Health executives and staff, along with Belvidere and Boone County dignitaries and members of Hagney Architects and Schmeling Construction Co. mark the ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday, June 9, 2022, of an expansion to the Belvidere Clinic. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)The Belvidere Clinic has 11 providers in the building and provides behavioral health, dental and medical services. The expansion will allow for six more exam rooms, a behavioral health counseling room, an additional lab station and staff restroom.
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Crusader is recruiting more providers in anticipation of opening the additional space.
The addition is being built on the rear of the existing facility, which will remain open during construction. Crusader also purchased the former Northern Lights Unlimited property to the east of the clinic to allow for 46 additional parking spaces to accommodate the expansion. Northern Lights is now located at 5596 E. Riverside Blvd., Loves Park.
The Belvidere Clinic addition is expected to be complete in late winter.
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This rendering from Hagney Architects shows the layout of the proposed addition to Crusader Community Health’s Belvidere Clinic. (Photo provided by Crusader Community Health)
Steve Schmeling, CEO of Schmeling Construction, smiles after breaking ground Thursday, June 9, 2022, on an expansion to Crusader Community Health’s Belvidere Clinic. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.