New clinic opens in Houghton
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at the new Aspirus Houghton Clinic located just behind Walmart Wednesday.
The crowd gathered around the main entrance to hear from guest speakers, including Aspirus President and CEO Matt Heywood. Design and construction for the facility began in the fall of 2013 which incorporated a fast-track timeline to be ready for Wednesday’s ceremony.
Regional CEO Chuck Nelson talked explained why the facility was built.
“We wanted to offer a more array of services to our patients and customers and that really drove us to look at new construction and new space as well as just adding additional services to the community was something that drove us to build a new clinic,” he said.
Among those services are specialty care including orthopedics and urology, as well as all family medicine and on-site lab and diagnostics. The facility also features a pharmacy and various outpatient therapies.
City Manager Eric Waara took a tour of the building and came away very impressed.
“I think it’s really great to have a state-of-the-art facility in one of the busiest shopping locations in Houghton,” he said. “This right here is really nice to see the investment in Houghton and for the people not only here but that come here to shop and to recreate, this facility is going to be a real benefit overall to the whole area.”
The building is over 18,000 square feet and features 17 patient exam rooms and two procedure rooms. But beyond all the numbers, officials said they had one goal in mind: convenience.
“I think in this facility what you’re going to see is one–stop shopping for a lot of things. And in the healthcare community, one of the problems certainly during our inclement weather during the winter season, you have to go to multiple locations to get service. We think that we have designed a clinic that can accommodate a lot of your needs in one stop,” Nelson said.
Walk-ins are welcome and patients see one of their primary care providers the same day or within 24 hours.