Mercyhealth in Crystal Lake eyes July opening, ramps up hiring

The new Mercyhealth Hospital and Medical Center in Crystal Lake is "close to being fully staffed," as officials eye July for a potential opening date.

Once opened, the hospital - located near Route 31 and Three Oaks Road - will be the first 24/7 emergency service the city has and offer other services with it.

After a delay, the project broke ground in 2021, and Mercyhealth said in November it was beginning hiring efforts as the facility neared completion.

To bolster its hiring efforts, Mercyhealth is holding a series of job fairs to find potential candidates as it tries to fill about 150 job spots, said Alen Brcic, Mercyhealth's vice president of people and culture.

The job fairs are held every other Wednesday starting in April and will run through July. The most recent one, held April 12, saw about 40 people attend, Brcic said. That also doesn't account for those who have reached out online or via text, email and phone.

"We've seen great community interest despite a tough job market," Brcic said.

That tough job market is expected to be exacerbated in the coming years, Brcic said, as Illinois is expected to have a significant nursing shortage by 2025. Despite an aging population and an increasing need for bedside workers, fewer people are going into the field.

Still, as the development reaches completion, Mercyhealth is seeing an uptick in interested people.

Some of those hired have included nurses who are training at Mercyhealth's facility in Harvard, Brcic said. The hospital waited to hire other positions, such as security and food service workers, until the hospital was closer to opening.

The project was originally expected to come in around $105 million, but inflation and problems within the construction market are going to drive that up, said Joanna Benning, vice president of support services and construction.

The final cost has not been tallied yet, but the entire cost will fall on Mercyhealth.

The opening date has been something else in flux too, Benning said. The hope was to open up earlier this year, but July has for a while now been the expected time frame. That final date will depend on any further supply chain issues.

With July approaching, the building itself is done, and Mercyhealth is putting on the "finishing touches," Benning said, such as installing equipment, adding landscaping and waiting on some other "critical parts" to be delivered.

"The progress made every day is just astonishing," Benning said. "We're really excited to see the beautiful spaces."

Once launched, the hospital will be the first emergency care facility in Crystal Lake, something Crystal Lake Mayor Haig Haleblian said he was thrilled about.

"It seems to be coming together quite nicely," Haleblian said. "The largest population center in southeast McHenry County finally has a hospital. This is long overdue."

Along with emergency services, the facility will also offer family medicine, orthopedics, sports medicine, gastroenterology, general surgery, cardiology, cancer care, infusion therapy and physical therapy, according to Mercyhealth's website.

It will have 13 inpatient beds as well, all of which will be private rooms, Mercyhealth's Senior Director of Critical Access Hospitals Tyler Killpack said. Two of those will be licensed intensive care units.

Beyond health care, having Mercyhealth in the community benefits everyone, Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce President Randy Leggee said.

In addition to Mercyhealth supporting other businesses and nonprofits in town, it is a "medium-sized employer," which will see some employees move to town as a result, Leggee said.

"Anytime you create jobs in a city or an area, that's important," Leggee said. "We're glad to have them. This is exciting for our community."

For Mercyhealth, one of the central points it's driving in its hiring is providing a place to not just have a job, but "a calling," Brcic said. People are looking to give back to their communities.

The community excitement for the hospital is gaining in some circles as well, Killpack said.

"We have partners in McHenry County who can't go to the grocery store without being asked when the hospital is going to open," Killpack said.