Residents of Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center are anxious to watch the facility where they live be transformed over the next two years.

"Some of our care center's residents have decided they're going to put hard hats on and watch the construction," said Kimber Wraalstad, Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center administrator.

Groundbreaking on a $24.5 million expansion and renovation of the facility in Grand Marais is at 2 p.m. Thursday.

When complete in the summer of 2017, the project will add 26,150 square-feet of new construction and renovate 42,680 square-feet - which amounts to the entire existing facility.

"This is a very big deal," Wraalstad said of the project. "It's pretty much going to touch every square foot of our building."

The project includes the creation of private rooms, bathrooms and showers in the 16-bed hospital unit; conversion to 37 private care center rooms; development of individual patient space exam space in the emergency room; an outpatient clinic area for subspecialty and telemedicine visits; relocation of the pharmacy; addition of a chemotherapy hood; and development of an operating room/procedure area allowing for expanded services.

Within the care center, a neighborhood model will allow residents to have the appropriate amounts of common, personal and support space.

A shared main entrance will be constructed so that wandering patients cannot exit the care center undetected. A lobby/town center will welcome visitors to the hospital and care center. Wireless access will be expanded into the new additions.

Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center is a critical access hospital and skilled nursing facility.

The hospital opened in 1958 and the care center in 1965.

The closest critical access hospital is in Two Harbors, 80 miles away. The closest tertiary hospitals are in Duluth, 110 miles away.

Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center employs about 100 full-time equivalent workers. The project will create three new permanent jobs. About 146 construction jobs will be required to complete the project.

Wraalstad says the project allows the hospital and care center to enhance the care already provided by the facility to area residents and visitors to the region.

"What we want to do is to be able to meet as much as we can the needs of our population," said Wraalstad. "What we're trying to do is to position the facility for the next 50 years."

Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board provided a grant to support infrastructure and site development for the Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center expansion and renovation.