O'NEILL, Neb. -- Monday evening Avera St. Anthony's Hospital announced that its emergency department and inpatient care services were set to reopen.

They reopened at 8 a.m. on Oct. 29. 

In a press release fro the hospital, they wanted to tell the public that it is important to understand that access to their emergency services will have to be through an alternative entrance, while the facility goes through repairs from the Oct. 7 explosion. 

Until further notice, patients and visitors are to use the entry on the north side of the hospital along E Adams St. for the emergency department. 

Parking will be available in the lot at the intersection of E Adams St. and N Third St. 

The press release said that signage and barricades will be on site to help guide patients and visitors. 

The emergency department will run out of the repurposed space in the inpatient area until repairs in the actual emergency department are done in the following months. 

“When we first surveyed the damage in the days following the explosion that occurred on the St. Patrick's Catholic Church property, we thought it would be months before we would be able to restore many of our services,” said John Kozyra, President and CEO of Avera St. Anthony’s Hospital. “But we have had many silver linings as we have evaluated the building and its support systems. That, along with the teams of employees, providers, contractors and more who have done a tremendous job of troubleshooting challenges and finding solutions, are why we are able to restore these services only three weeks out from that tragic day."

Kozyra added that they have placed safety at the top of their priority list.

“While these are temporary arrangements in some cases, we have made every effort to ensure that we are providing the same high-quality care our community has come to expect from the hospital,” Kozyra said.

Kozyra said he is cautiously optimistic that an announcement for the reopening of surgical, along with labor and delivery, services will be coming soon.

Once those are recovered, the only two services that need to come back are dialysis and MRI.

A couple more things to noted in the press release were:

  • Until the hospital announces that labor and delivery services are back, only true emergency deliveries can be done at Avera St. Anthony’s Hospital.
  • The cafeteria at the hospital has also reopened to the public.

“We are so grateful to the community for its understanding and support as we’ve gone through the clean-up and repair process,” Kozyra said. “I have lived in O’Neill for less than a year, but this experience has reinforced to me why my family felt drawn to the community. People have pulled together to help and make sure the hospital and parish have the support they need.”