I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
July 7, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
Clearwater County Memorial Hospital in Bagley has had an identity crisis in the past. The technology and services provided by the hospital were as up to date as a rural hospital could be, Administrator Larry Laudon says, but the building itself did not reflect that.
Clearwater Health Services will remedy that problem this summer with a $300,000 expansion and renovation project beginning this week and continuing through October.
The project, Laudon said, will expand and enhance CCMH's emergency services and lobby/registration area. There will be a total of 1,600 square feet added to the existing structure, and 1,400 square feet will be renovated.
CCMH is licensed for 40 beds and serves 3,000 to 4,000 patients a year, Laudon said. It was constructed in 1946 and an addition was built in 1969. There also was a connecting corridor constructed in 1983 between the hospital and a clinic that stood adjacent to the hospital.
"Around every 20 years there has been an addition or expansion that was done," Laudon said.
The current expansion will involve the hospital's emergency room facilities. Another examination room will be added so more emergency cases can be accommodated, and a nurses' station will be constructed in the emergency room so there will be more supervision of emergency room patients, Laudon said.
There also will be a new waiting room constructed specifically for families in a crisis or trauma situation, Laudon said. For example, when a person injured in a car accident comes into the emergency room their families have to wait in the regular lobby. He said it doesn't help the family's state of mind, and the family needs a room where they can be alone.
"It will add to the privacy and confidentiality of these situations," he said.
One room that will be remodeled is a transfusion therapy room. Laudon said the hospital wants to change the room because the type of services done in the room usually take a couple of hours. He said the new room will be more patient-friendly and less sterilized.
One goal of the renovation is to centralize outpatient services CCMH offers. Services such as the laboratory, mammography, CT scanning, ultrasound and X-rays will be located near each other after the renovation. This should quicken and make the outpatient process efficient, Laudon said.
Finally, the project will include renovation of the front lobby. Laudon said the look of the lobby just does not reflect the actual service that is provided by the hospital.
"The building didn't accurately reflect the quality of care given," he said. "Now the perception will equal the reality."
Laudon said this was the right time for the hospital expansion because most health care is being geared toward outpatient care, and the project will be doing just that for CCMH.
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