WCHS Front Entrance Temporarily Closed for Repairs
July 23, 2025
Winnebago, NE – The Winnebago Comprehensive Healthcare System’s front main entrance will be closed for critical repairs. During this time, for the safety of patients, employees, and visitors alike, all traffic will be routed to the east entrance located near the Emergency Room.
The Hospital Front Entrance project has many moving parts to it and was more involved than simply replacing the stone tiles and cement. The sinking, heated cement sidewalk presented a safety issue that was going to be quite expensive to fix. After seeking and securing the necessary funds for the front entry repair from the Indian Health Services’ Backlog of Essential Maintenance, Alteration and Repair (BEMAR) subset. The WCHS facilities team was able to secure contractors and start navigating a timeline for these repairs.
“Due to its self-heating nature, the needed repairs and coordination of this project in conjunction with all other planned projects this summer has been difficult to navigate,” says Paul McCarty, Facilities and Physical Environment Director, “but it was important to our team to see all these things completed before winter with the smallest impact to our patients.”
All space directly outside of the open east entrance will be reserved exclusively for patient parking. The spaces and area closest to the main entrance will be barricaded to employees and the public as a construction zone.
Since gaining ownership of the building in February of 2025, WCHS has completed several repairs and updates to the building including recent projects such as repairs to the exterior facade, restored the decaying helicopter landing pad, resurfaced the roof on the second level, expanded the dental clinic, and now is making significant improvements to the drainage system within our on-site cafeteria and repairing the front entrance.
“We are thankful for our outstanding facilities team for prioritizing, budgeting, planning, and managing these critical projects. These ongoing maintenance projects may not be glamorous, but they are important to keeping our facility safe and nice for our community," explains Sharon Frenchman, Chief Administration Officer.
Repairs will begin in the week of August 4th. Until the project is completed, all space directly outside of the open east entrance will be reserved exclusively for patient parking. The spaces and area closest to the main entrance will be barricaded to employees and the public as a construction zone. Look to social media for an announcement upon project completion.