New Glen Ellyn clinic work still on schedule

DuPage Medical Group's expansion of the Glen Ellyn Clinic is running on schedule, and should be completed by next year, officials said.

The roughly $21 million project, which started last September, is in its second of four construction phases. The first phase, a parking lot along Western Avenue, was completed in November.

A new clinic is expected to be done by February. Then the old building at 454 Pennsylvania Ave. will be demolished, and another parking lot will be built in its place.

"I'm confident that we'll meet our timelines," said Mary Goldsher, the medical group's executive director of administrative services.

"We've done a number of projects in DuPage County," she added, "and have been able to complete them all on time."

Despite traffic concerns raised by some Western Avenue residents, village board members in April 2006 approved the medical group's plan to replace its existing 71,000-square-foot structure with a new, 92,000-square-foot building.

The new facility will have upgraded diagnostic testing facilities, with comprehensive exams geared for women including digital mammography and an ultrasound suite.

In addition, the new clinic will have expanded physical therapy space. The first floor will contain retail space, including an optical shop.

Officials still plan to increase the medical staff by about 15 percent, which will add roughly 120 employees and 25 doctors on site at all times.

"I think that people within the community will now have a state-of-the-art medical facility that didn't exist," Goldsher said Wednesday. "So they'll have access to university-caliber medical care that really they wouldn't have had without the improvements in technology and the facility."