Sanford Unveils Designs for $360M Medical Center

Sanford Health has unveiled its plans for an "X-shaped" $360 million, 371-private room Sanford Fargo Medical Center that the health system is calling the largest project of its kind in North Dakota history.

"Designing a new medical center from the ground up is an extraordinary opportunity to do things right for our patients," Sanford Health President/CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft said in a media release.

Sanford has committed to more than $600 million in construction projects and facilities improvements in northern Minnesota across the Dakotas. On Aug. 17, the health system announced the Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Center named in honor of philanthropist Denny Sanford's mother. It includes a new building in Sioux Falls and an expansion in Fargo.

Earlier in the month it announced the $60 million Sanford Thief River Falls Medical Center and Clinic in Minnesota.

The design of the "X" shaped Fargo hospital is intended to facilitate integration between the hospital and clinics. Room for growth at the current facilities, facility design limitation, and aging buildings were given as the main reasons for the new hospital.

About 58% of Sanford's downtown Fargo campus patients come from outside the area. However, downtown Fargo is difficult to navigate with multiple railroad crossings and congested traffic. The threat of flooding is also a factor – many of the downtown campus buildings are antiquated and the campus is land-locked.