Tour of the New Facilities at St. Mary’s Medical Center

DULUTH, Minn.–With almost six years since the start of construction for the new St. Mary’s Hospital, Essentia Health is just putting the finishing touches into its new facility.

“You know it started in 2017 with a concept development, a year of design, and three and a half years of construction. You know it’s really to the point where we want to see patients in here and start taking care of patients in this beautiful space,” said Gastrointestinal Medical Staff M.D. Robert V. Erikson.

Essentia Health is ready to open its new $900 million dollar St. Mary’s Medical Center in Downtown Duluth this Friday, July 21.

“We’re very excited to be in the building. We’re ready to be in the building,” said Director of Facilities at Essentia Health Dan Cenelinski.

St. Mary’s new patient rooms are considered state of the art with efficiency at the forefront of their design. With 342 new rooms in the tower, and more room for potential development along Superior Street.

“So you’ll have single-patient rooms so no longer do we have take a two bed room for someone with maybe an infectious risk,” said Erikson.

“Then there is also in-room entertainment in here, so the patient will have a display but then there’s also a way for them to order their food and they can do all of their education,” said Jill Cernohous, the VNL Transition Operations Director at Essentia Health.

With patient care expected to be at a higher quality, MANAGEMENT AT ESSENTIA SAY the building’s internal horse-shoe shaped design is designed to help nurses.

“We worked really hard to standardize how our units are set up. So if a nurse or caregiver is working on this floor, if they go to the critical care floor above us the things will be in the same spots.”

But one thing that is completely new is the robotic tugs that are able to autonomously deliver patient trays and other medical needs.

“Those will travel throughout our replacement hospital here and also into our other buildings,” said Vision Northland Transition Advisor Luke Eastep.