St. Luke’s Announces $22.5M Surgical Expansion

DULUTH, Minn. - A surgical expansion being built on the fourth floor of St. Luke’s campus building at 1012 East Second Street will provide services not currently offered in the Northland. "This is going to be revolutionary for both the physicians and patients,” St. Luke’s Vascular Surgeon Dr. Mark Eginton said. For starters, the 36,000 square foot building will have two hybrid operating rooms. "The ability to facilitate both open and these minimally invasive procedures in the same space is what defines a hybrid operating room,” said Eginton. “So our present operating rooms and cath labs were really not designed with this in mind." For a more comfortable and supportive stay, patients will have access to 42 private exam rooms before and after surgery."They'll be able to have their family with them the whole time,” St. Luke’s Surgical Services director Toni Schultz said. “The other thing that we're excited about is the patients that are going to be going home that day will get to have the same care team taking care of them when they come back from surgery." Along with the 42 private bays, the high quality space will house universal operating and special procedure rooms."Which we can do general anesthesia in that space,” said Schultz. “So a lot of our cardiological procedures will be done there as well as some endoscopy procedures." Other amenities inside the $22.5 million expansion include convenient bedside registration and a café. "Not every community has this level of world class heath care in their cities,” Duluth Mayor Don Ness said. “It is something that helps us attract talent to our community, helps attract new businesses." St. Luke's surgical expansion will open next summer. The expansion has been in the works for 15 years.