By Brie Cohen, staff writer

While most people are aware of the exterior changes at the Albert Lea Medical Center &8212; new parking lot, two new floors to the clinic, new lobby &8212; not as many are aware of the changes that took place inside the hospital.

ALMC is in the final phases of completing the renovations on the second and third floor of Naeve Hospital.

Construction crews have been renovating these floors since July of last year. They should have it completed the second week in June, Naeve Hospital Administrator Steve Underdahl said.

The second floor includes the medical surgical area and the special care unit. The third floor is the rehab unit and the maternity ward, named The Baby Place. The Albert Lea Medical Center comprises a hospital, a clinic, a cafeteria and staff offices. Naeve Hospital is on the north side of the facility.

The Baby Place and the medical surgical area are nearly complete; most of the work that is still in progress is in the special care unit.

One of the features of the renovation includes new waiting rooms for patients and guests. The waiting rooms feature seating, a fireplace and warm-toned colors. Underdahl said the previous waiting rooms were divided into patient rooms and they were old, dark and uninviting. The hospital opened up all of those rooms to make one large waiting room.

ALMC also has made the floors more functional for employees, Underdahl said. The original hospital was not built with the technology that ALMC has now, so when it added computers and other technology elements, the space for them was not there. Because these floors had not been fully renovated since 1974, the workers needed the space to be designed for the technology used today, the hospital administrator said.

The hospital also has updated the engineering, including new air conditioning and heating units and odor control.

&8220;The goal was to make something comfortable,&8221; Underdahl said.

So far the hospital renovation is on target in terms of time and budget &8212; $2.25 million, Underdahl said.

There have been a few complications with the renovations because the construction was taking place while the hospital was still open and because the area was so old.

The hospital had to make sure that they controlled the noise and had to make sure the area was safe for patients, visitors and staff.

ALMC had some surprises in terms of what was behind the walls when crews knocked them down, Underdahl said. Some of the things staff members thought were behind the walls were different than what was actually there, like different lighting wires. The electrical engineer just had to change his plan as he went along if things were different, Underdahl said.

The planning for the renovation of the second and third floor has been in the works since the late &8217;90s, Underdahl said.