Open House to Celebrate New Altru Hospital in Grand Forks

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KVRR) — It’s the dawning of a new day for healthcare in Grand Forks as Altru unveils its freshly constructed hospital.

Cheers filled the space at the new Altru campus in Grand Forks -almost as much as the people did.

Dr. Josh Deere, Family Medicine & Primary Care, says, “We actually saw thousands of people. We don’t have an exact number right now, but it was a great attendance.”

As folks came out in droves to celebrate an advancement for healthcare in the region….”We didn’t know what to expect when you hold an event like this. But we had our community in Grand Forks and our greater community that surrounds us really embrace us today.”

The project broke ground back in 2019, and when construction was halted during the pandemic, there were doubts the proposed building would ever see the light of day.

Which makes reaching the finish line all the more satisfying.

“We’re really proud. It’s been a lot of hard work by a lot of different people.”

Dr. Josh Deere says that the primary reason behind constructing the new facility was to provide a higher standard of care.

Two departments immediately came to mind when he thought of services that would be the most positively impacted.

“I would say our NICU. That’s a time when you need bonding with family. And our current environment – and they deliver great care – is a bay environment, and the new one is all private rooms.
The second one would be for sure our emergency room. The patient rooms, the flow of patients, the privacy that’s in there – its just different than our current state.”

The patients begin moving on January 19th but, for now, the celebrations take precedent.