New St. Luke’s Hospital Plaza opens

Health care is a challenging industry, and rural health care has it’s own unique obstacles. But rural health care got a boost south of the twin ports this week.

St. Luke’s and its partners celebrated the grand opening of the St. Luke’s plaza in Moose Lake on Thursday. The St. Lukes’ plaza is now home to Northern Lakes Surgery Center, Lake Area Therapy Services and St. Luke’s Diagnostic Imaging.

The center’s director, Jacque Volk, says patients are thrilled to not have to always travel to Duluth or the twin cities for high-quality health care.

“It’s been very positive responses from the community about the care being close by.” Volk said adding, “Easy parking, easy access into the building, folks don’t have to drive downtown in construction or to the cities. Yes, it’s been very, very positive responses from the community.”

The St. Luke’s plaza is an $8.5 million dollar renovation. St. Luke’s serves approximately 500,000 residents of northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin and the western upper peninsula of Michigan with it’s regional network of medical facilities.