Essentia Health To Open New Outpatient Surgery Center At Miller Hill Mall This Summer

DULUTH, Minn. — Essentia Health is getting ready to open its new outpatient surgery center at the Miller Hill Mall this summer.

The Miller Hill Surgery Center will take over the empty building that sears left behind.

The 41,000 square-foot building will have 12 operating rooms.

The goal is to offer a place where patients can go home in less than 24 hours after a procedure, such as orthopedic and joint replacement surgeries, cataract treatments, urological operations, and more.

Those in the health care field say that it’s a huge benefit to have a building that will be brand new inside, as it is being constructed with much more space for modern equipment.

“There won’t be cords on the floor, so everything kind of hangs from the ceiling down, so it’s very efficient, it actually decreases infection, it’s infection control because you don’t have cords that you have to walk around that are tripping hazards,” Esther Lindeman, the director of the surgery center, said.

Essentia also expects the renovated property to help bring more foot traffic to the mall, especially with visitors waiting to pick up their loved ones post-op.

“Putting this at the Sears building keeps the mall alive, it separates some of the care and the busyness from having that care downtown, it’s easier parking for our patients, it just makes a lot of sense,” Jefferson Davis, the chair of the division of surgical operations, said.

Essentia’s goal is to have the outpatient surgery center at the mall open this July.