Special pass-through windows at Avera Marshall’s new hospital pharmacy will allow medications prepared in a sterile room to be transferred to technicians in the main pharmacy area. Pharmacy Director Brittany Geihl said the renovations will move the pharmacy to a spot closer to the Avera Cancer Institute in Marshall.

MARSHALL — There have been some important changes going on at Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center – although not in a part of the hospital that patients see. Work on the hospital’s new pharmacy is nearing completion, Avera Marshall Facilities Director Kevin Schroeder said this week.

The $2.55 million project, which will move the hospital pharmacy from the third floor down to the first floor, will also mean being closer to the Avera Cancer Institute in Marshall, said Brittany Geihl, Avera Marshall pharmacy director.

“It allows us to provide closer care with them,” Geihl said. It will be easier to transport medications for cancer treatment and specialty clinic patients. The new pharmacy facilities will also be important as the Cancer Institute plans to offer clinical trial treatments in the future, she said.

“I think it’s been going well, and now it’s at the detail stage,” Geihl said of the project.

Avera Marshall’s current pharmacy is located on the third floor of the hospital. Because the renovation work was happening on a different floor, the pharmacy has been able to keep operating as normal during construction, Geihl said.

Remodeling for the pharmacy project started in June, and has made good progress, Schroeder said. “Our big concern was our air handler,” he said. However, there were no delays in getting the air handling equipment to Marshall.

The space being converted into a new pharmacy started out as storage space when the Cancer Institute was built, Schroeder said. Now, the new pharmacy will have its own air handling system, a “handoff room” where medications can be brought to the Cancer Institute, and two sterile compounding areas. The compounding areas are sterile rooms where pharmacists prepare medicines like IV antibiotics, or medications for patients at Avera Marshall’s infusion center, Geihl said.

Geihl said the new pharmacy design would also have a good workflow for pharmacy staff, and plenty of space for medication inventory. The new pharmacy will have secure storage for controlled medications, in addition to refrigerator and freezer storage.

Schroeder said the new pharmacy was planned to be operational in early January. Although the construction was close to being done, there were still equipment and systems that needed to be tested before pharmacy staff could fully move in.

In addition to being able to work more closely with the Cancer Institute, the renovation project will help the hospital pharmacy “look to the future,” Geihl said. The updated facilities will help keep Avera Marshall up to date with changing pharmacy guidelines, she said.