PARIS, Ill. (WTWO/WAWV) — For the fourth time in 20 years, Horizon Health Hospital in Paris, Illinois is expanding.
Visiting doctors as well as making more room for patients are just some of the many reasons Horizon Health is expanding.
The construction will add administrative areas with the goal of adding and providing more primary care and resources for mental health.
“Looking to really support holistic care of our patients and we recognize that the ability to take care of patients and their physical diseases is influenced by their mental health as well so the building is meant to embrace that integrated model,” Lacey Stults, clinic director at Horizon Health Hospital said.
Mental health services that will be available include psychiatry and therapy visits as well as potential testing capabilities in the future.
“We will be able to have total mental health capacity to augment our primary care providers when they see patients and quickly get them into anything that they might see from a mental health perspective,” Horizon Health President/CEO Ollie Smith said.
With a new building in the works, more staff will be hired to help run the facility, which means more jobs for the community.
“The hospital also now is one of our major employers,” Craig Smith. “We’re looking at some communities that it’s terrible what happened to their hospitals but some of them have closed or they can’t get people to come and work or doctors are leaving.”
Hospital construction on this new 38,000 sq. foot building is expected to be completed by the end of the year or the early part of next year.