With less than five months until opening, the new Mayo Clinic Health System bed tower in Mankato is getting many of its finishing touches.
The rooms, particularly those that will provide intensive and progressive care, are loaded with the latest technology. But they also focus on providing the many simple touches that will make patients feel a little more like they are having a hotel experience rather than a hospital room experience, said Dr. Brian Bartlett, an emergency medicine physician during a tour of the project Thursday.
“They’re small things but very important for the patient.”
The private rooms are twice the size of existing rooms, giving more space for family and visitors. Large windows allow views outside. A large 65-inch screen lets patients see lab results, upcoming procedures, food menus and a variety of other information, as well as providing entertainment through a Mayo Movies channel and the ability to log into people’s Netflix or other streaming services.
Mayo doctors from Rochester can also have live video visits with patients as needed.
The floors provide work areas for nursing staff that are close by but that reduce the commotion in the hallways to allow for more restful sleep.
Patients can stay in the same room while they’re getting intensive care and when they get the less intensive progressive care, rather than having to be moved to a different room.
Everything, Bartlett said, is designed for efficiency, quality care and giving patients an experience that helps them recover more quickly and with less stress.
They will begin using the new 121 hospital-bed addition at the end of April.
The $155 million project includes a three-floor vertical expansion built above the existing emergency department, cancer center and specialty clinic foyer.
The new hospital floors will link to the existing hospital bed tower and include a new and expanded Intensive care unit and progressive care unit, a new medical-surgical unit and a new family birth center with labor and delivery rooms, postpartum rooms, triage rooms, a new Cesarean surgical suite and a Level II nursery.
The project broke ground in May 2022.