Parkview Noble Hospital has entered into an agreement to purchase the former David Funeral Home at the corner of Drake Road and SR 3 in Kendallville.

Parkview Noble Hospital COO Dave Hunter explained that the purchase of the property is still subject to due diligence that is required for such purchases prior to closing, which is expected within the next few weeks.

The building is being purchased to allow for expansion of the hospital’s outpatient rehabilitation department which provides physical, occupational and speech therapy to adults and children. Rehab is presently located at the Parkwest Medical building on the hospital campus. Other established medical offices in that building made expansion at that site impossible.

The Drake Road location, constructed in 2007, is 8,518 square feet, almost doubling what the present therapy department has now. The entire property sits on 1.7 acres.

“We are very excited about this new location for our department,” Julie Desper, manager of the therapy department, said. “It will allow us to really expand our pediatric therapy services and offer quiet and more private treatment for both adults and our young patients and that is very important to us.”

Hunter sees the rehabilitation expansion as affirmation that Parkview Noble continues to meet the needs of the community.

“The excellent care that these therapists provide to our patients has caused our demand for therapy services to increase significantly,” he said. “We are so pleased to find a great building, at an ideal location, to help us grow and continue to provide for the therapy needs of our patients.”

Renovation of the interior of the building will take place between the time Parkview Noble takes possession and the expected opening, tentatively planned for March 2013.

“The building fits many of our requirements; it is easy to get to, and easy to find,” Desper said. “We will still be remodeling it to meet our needs. We will have several individual treatment rooms and the larger areas will become our treatment gyms with pediatric therapy having its own gym and treatment rooms. We will be the only therapy department in the four-county area to have a dedicated pediatric therapy gym.”

When notified about the purchase, Kendallville Mayor Suzanne Handshoe commented that she was pleased to see Parkview Noble’s continued commitment to the community.

“We are very excited for Parkview Noble’s new expansion of excellent health care services to our community,” she said. “This new location will give a lovely building a wonderful new purpose. We thank them for this investment.”

Parkview Noble Hospital board chairman Mike Axel agreed and spoke on behalf of the board, “The Parkview Noble Board is very excited about the acquisition of the Drake Road property to meet the needs of our growing therapy department. We are pleased that we will be able to re-purpose a vacant building in a prime location to provide excellent care to our patients. This is a win/win for Parkview Noble, our patients and the community.”

The expansion of the department and the increased demand for services will also allow Desper to hire three new therapists for the department; something she said will also be good news for her existing staff. “We take pride in what we do for our patients so naturally we are very excited about being able to serve the community even better. With more staff and our new facility, we will still be providing our patients with excellent care.”

Source: INside Indiana Business