It's pretty rare for a hospital to close, for obvious reasons, but that's exactly what's happening this weekend in Faribault.

District One Hospital will be temporarily closing for a planned, necessary power outage. No hospital services will be available during the outage.

Hospital officials hope the closure will last only 24 hours, from 9AM Saturday until 9AM Sunday, but the time could change.

District One CEO Stephen Pribyl is scheduled to join us during the 7:05 morning report Friday on KDHL to talk more about the situation.

When Allina entered into their agreement to take over the Faribault Hospital, one of the things they promised was to modernize the Emergency Department. This upgrade is the reason for the power outage.

All hospitals have power generators in the event of loss of electrical power, but part of the work at District One includes moving the generators and some extensive electrical work.

The Allina Health Faribault Clinic, in the building next to the hospital will expand their hours to be open during the outage. However, the clinic does not provide emergency or urgent care services. So District One Hospital officials say if you have a medical emergency during the outage to please call 911. Local emergency services have been informed of the temporary closure.

For questions you may call (507) 334-6451.

Hospital officials say the new Emergency Department will be able to better serve the community once it's completed.

If you've been by the hospital campus recently you've seen a lot of construction. It's all part of the agreement Allina made with the hospital board when taking over the facility the first of this year.

New Emergency Department Being Constructed at District One
New Emergency Department Being Constructed at District One
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Construction on the Health Care Campus in Faribault
Construction on the Health Care Campus in Faribault
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