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Michelle Bruch
Bikers gathered in Downtown's Mill District on Thursday to test out bike sharing equipment that is slated to come to Minneapolis next spring.
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City to launch bike-sharing program
UPDATED November 6, 2008, 3:40pm
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By Michelle Bruch
The city is working to roll out a bike sharing program that would plant 75 bike stations populated with 1,000 bikes in Uptown, Downtown and the University of Minnesota campus. City officials are working with the City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation to launch the $3 million program in May 2009. Bill Dossett, a consultant on the project, said that half of Hennepin County residents ride bicycles, but only a fraction of those riders use bikes for transportation. This bike sharing program would be targeted at people who might take a bike out during lunch, or bike to a meeting in the middle of the day. Workers could log on to a web page that would tell them how many bikes are currently available nearby. Bikers would buy into the bike sharing system by paying an annual subscription fee of about $50–$75 for unlimited rides. The bikes proposed for Minneapolis were designed by Stationnement de Montréal, which is the city of Montreal’s parking authority. The agency is launching a bike sharing program in Montreal next spring and it beat out six other companies to take the Minneapolis job. The bike’s front-wheel movement creates an electrical charge that automatically powers lights at the rear of the bicycle. The chain is covered, and all of the gears and brakes are internal to the hubs. Bikes feature a unisex heavy-duty frame and handlebars, and a front-hanging basket. A broad seat is designed to be quickly adjustable. One bike kiosk would have about 20 bikes, and bikes would be removed from docks by using small key cards. To ride with no extra charge, bikers are asked to return bikes to a rack within about a half-hour of taking them out. Average trips are expected to take riders one–three miles. The self-service bike docks would be powered by solar panels and they would be movable — advocates say the flexible design is a key improvement over the huge bike sharing program in Paris, which has bike stations entrenched in the street. Most of the docks would go into storage over the winter. Staff at the City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation (the organization that runs the annual Loppet event) have been working with the city since the summer to develop a nonprofit business model for the bike sharing program. Staff are working to secure grants that would pay for $3 million in startup costs. Bike sharing is popular in European cities such as Paris, Barcelona and Stockholm, but it has yet to take hold in the United States. Washington, D.C. is currently launching a pilot program, and New York is planning a program as well. Paris put 20,600 bikes on the street last year. In Barcelona, each bike is rented an average of 10–15 times each day. For more information, visit twincitiesbikeshare.com.
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Combating cancer
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 11:42am
By Dylan Thomas
Decorated in neutral tones and blond wood flooring, the infusion room at the Hennepin Comprehensive Cancer Center was designed to feel calm and welcoming to the roughly 500 patients who receive chemotherapy treatments there each year. Center Manager Kelly Porter said one session may run up to six hours, so patients — who receive their infusions in recliners in one of 11 small patient bays ringing the room — are made to feel comfortable. They read, watch TV or, like 48-year-old Desiree Jackson of Minneapolis, three months into chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer in March, simply relax as much as possible. “I just try to nod off a little,” Jackson said. “I just like to get it done and over with.” From his desk in the center of
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The poison patrol
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 11:39am
By Dylan Thomas
A typical call to the Hennepin Regional Poison Center begins at a home on laundry day. A parent pours out a cup of bleach, preparing to add it to the wash. The phone rings and the parent leaves to answer it. A child reaches up for cup of the clear liquid. We’ll let poison center Managing Director Debbie Anderson take over from here: “A child takes a swig [and] they immediately throw up. So, what do parents do? They panic; they call 911.” Anderson said that call would be patched through to her call center in HCMC, where a staff of specially trained pharmacists and pharmacy students take calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The staffer would assure the parent vomiting was
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Savvy about sleep
By jake weyer
There’s little question that folks today are hooked on finding ways to stay awake. The massive collection of energy drinks on display in a room at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center is a testament to that. Voluntary sleep deprivation, not surprisingly, is the most common cause of drowsiness during the day. Neurologist Mark Mahowald, director of the center, sees it all the time. “People always ask, ‘well how do you know if you’re sleep deprived?’ Our first question is, ‘do you use an alarm clock to wake up in the morning?’ If you use an alarm clock, you are by definition sleep deprived because if your brain had collected as much sleep as it needed, you would have awakened before the alarm went off,” he said.
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Triage time
By Sarah McKenzie
No one wants to end up here. But if you do end up in HCMC’s Emergency Department, you’re in place that has a long and successful track record in trauma care. The department, housed in the hospital’s Red Building, 730 S. 8th St., takes up an entire city block and has six specialized team centers. In 1989, HCMC became the first hospital in the state certified as a Level I Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons. The distinction means that the hospital has significant operating room capacity and surgeons available to deliver emergency medical care trained in a variety of specialties. The hospital’s Emergency Department is the busiest in the state with more than 100,000 visits a year, said Michelle Noltimier, director
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Fruit-themed hallways and anti-smoking posters
By Cristof Traudes
Welcome to the part of HCMC that handles severe accidents but also cuts, scrapes and bruises, the part that deals with burn victims and pregnancy but also tonsil trouble and literacy. This is “peeds” — as staffers of pediatrics call it — where health care is only half of the story. Anybody up to age 18 is sent to the department and sometimes 21-year-olds are, too. As a result, peeds is set up much like a tentative parent — to entertain and educate wee ones but steer clear (as much as possible) from stepping on the toes of teens. It’s a department with yellow walls and fruit-themed hallways in one section and sleek grey walls and self esteem-boosting posters in another. Every child that walks through the door is given a
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Politics. Change. Prevention.
By Cristof Traudes
// Art Gonzalez talks about the health care landscape, General Assistance Medical Care and the future //
Art Gonzalez, CEO of Hennepin County Medical Center, sees change on the horizon. More than just health insurance is getting an overhaul; the way hospitals will be graded on success is, too. In the second and final part of his interview with the Downtown Journal, he talks about what that means for HCMC right now and what it will mean down the road.
Downtown Journal: What’s your sense of state leaders’ views of HCMC?
Gonzalez: I get the impression that we’re well known and well regarded. They recognize the impact that we provide in the region.
Obviously, the
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More than one way to give birth
By Sarah McKenzie
Hennepin County Medical Center is home to the state’s first Nurse-Midwife Service. Since 1971, midwives at the hospital have been helping women have natural birth experiences. Rita O’Reilly, director of the hospital’s Nurse Midwife Service, said HCMC practices the “true midwifery philosophy.” “We believe in the normal birth process; keeping birth as natural as possible,” she said. “We discourage elective inductions of labor without a medical indication. We encourage families to be participants in the decision making affecting their pregnancy, labor and births.” The hospital’s nurse midwives deliver more than 800 babies each year. The nine-bed unit’s cesarean section rate is 12.7
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