All of that is around a new state of the art surgical center that is steadily taking shape.

Construction began in June and is on pace for scheduled completion in March 2027.

“We are looking good for dates,” said Brandon Wood, site superintendent for Murray Co. of Des Moines, which is the general contractor for the project.

He spoke Thursday morning during one of the tours that gave hospital employees, donors and others an up-close look at the work.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
The interior of the surgical center addition at UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center was the site of a lot of construction activity Thursday. The project is on track for completion in March 2027.

People were able to walk through the new construction site and that part of the existing building that is being renovated.

The $39.8 million project will produce five operating room suites, two endoscopy suites, 24 pre- and post-operative rooms for patients and sterile processing. The project will consolidate all inpatient and outpatient surgery services in an area just west of the main entrance of the hospital. Now the inpatient and outpatient surgery areas are in two different places in the building.

The hospital’s inpatient surgery area opened in 1979 and remains essentially unchanged.

Wood said there has been a “good, smooth flow” to the project.

He credited the staff of the hospital and the subcontractors, most of whom are local, for the smoothness of the project.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Cables dangle from the ceiling and walls of what will be Operating Room 1 in the new surgical center at UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center.

“This hospital has been good to work with,” he said.

Wood added that there are “a lot of good construction guys in this area.”

“Fort Dodge has some good trade partners,” he said.

The list of subcontractors includes Sande Construction and Supply, of Humboldt, plus Baker Electric, Mid State Plumbing and Heating, Rasch Construction, Jensen Builders Ltd. and Kolacia Construction, all of Fort Dodge.

Tours included the lower level of the new addition, which will not be a patient care area. The major facility there will be what hospital staffers call central sterile. That is where all of the equipment used in surgery will be cleaned, according to Shannon McQuillen, the hospital’s vice president of operations.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Construction workers were busy Thursday in the new addition that is part of the surgical center being constructed at Unity Point Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center.

The upper level of the new addition will house the 24 pre and post operative rooms, where patients will be cared for before and after their surgeries.

The operating and endoscopy suites will be in the portion of the existing building that is being remodeled. The post anesthesia care unit, called PACU, by hospital staffers will also be in that area. McQuillen said the PACU is what people often call the recovery room. It’s where patients will be awakened from the anesthesia before returning to their pre and post operative room.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
The boom of a huge crane towers over the construction of a new surgical center at UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
The white steel beam in the new addition at UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center was signed by people who attended a Nov. 17, 2025, event at which it was hoisted into place. That beam was the last piece of structural steel put in place for the addition.