The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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May 17, 2009

New clinic shown off

St. Peter facility more spacious

By Tim Krohn

ST PETER — You can excuse LPN Irene Dylla for being a bit giddy about her new clinic work space.

“The old clinic was so cramped. We have all this space and all this equipment we never had before. It’s exciting.”

Dylla and other staff at the new St. Peter Clinic — Mayo Health System hosted a community grand opening Sunday afternoon. The clinic, part of the Immanuel St. Joseph’s — Mayo Health System, is on the campus of River’s Edge Hospital, operated by the community of St. Peter.

Dylla works in the procedure suite, a series of rooms where visiting specialists do everything from urology work to minor facial plastic surgery. “We have more specialties now and we’re very busy. We’re booked pretty much every day,” she said.

“This clinic is much more patient centered,” said Ismail Ahmed, clinic administrator. “It has a holistic approach in the design, trying to bring natural colors and earthy textures.”

The clinic has 30 exam rooms, compared to 20 in the old clinic, more procedure rooms and other spaces for specialty care.

“The other clinic was 30-plus years old and you could tell,” Ahmed said. “With the growth we’ve had, it was cramped.”

John Kvamme, a city council member who was taking a tour of the clinic, gave it high grades for its size, design and aesthetics. He said the city had long hoped ISJ would build a new clinic at the hospital campus.

“This is a wonderful facility. The cooperation between the ISJ system and the River’s Edge Hospital has been fantastic.”

Beyond family practice, the clinic offers mental health care, urology, chiropractic care and ear, nose and throat.

“We have space to grow and we’ll do more specialties as the need grows,” Ahmed said.

Being attached to the hospital will be a big plus, he said.

“Our physicians can admit patients right there. They just have to go through our corridor to the hospital.”

He said whether patients are admitted to the River’s Edge Hospital in St. Peter or the ISJ Mayo Health hospital in Mankato will be decided by the desire of the patient and the type of care needed.

Ahmed said the primary market is north of Mankato to Le Sueur, to near New Ulm and to near Waseca.

The clinic is filled with art from several local artists, including Marian Anderson, Anders Bjorling, John Cross, Pat Christman, A.J. Dahm, Brian Fowler, Evan Meyer and Marilyn Sween.

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