By Kristin J. Everett, Mayo Clinic Health System
BARRON – Completion of a $4.9 million construction project at Mayo Clinic Health System –Northland in Barron will be celebrated on Monday, Mar. 19.
Community members are invited to see the improvements in the Medical-Surgical Department during an open house from 4:30 to 7 p.m. The Barron Chamber of Commerce will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4:30 p.m. to lead off the open house. Refreshments will be served and tours of the new facility will be available.
The project, announced in September 2016, added over 13,000 square feet to the facility, including 8,640 square feet for 10 new inpatient rooms.
Those rooms include ceiling lift units, private bathrooms and showers with safety rails and wheelchair accessibility, and wireless internet access and almost double the size of existing rooms.
A new family lounge is close to the patient rooms and provides a nearby quiet place for visitors to relax or have private conversations. A 5,600-square-foot shell space was included in the project as a future replacement for the hospital’s Family Birth Center.
“Before construction, the rooms in this part of the hospital were more than 35 years old and did not meet the current needs of our patients or staff because they were so small,” said Dr. Richard Sampson, a family medicine physician and medical staff director.
“These beautiful, new, nature-inspired rooms are nearly twice the size and can easily accommodate medical equipment and family members so our employees can attend to all of our patients’ needs,” Sampson added.
Patients will move into the new space in May.
Mayo Clinic Health System – Northland includes clinics in Chetek and Rice Lake as well as the Barron hospital and clinic, which cares for more than 760 patients annually.