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By Ayanna Eckblad

The Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday welcomed the Mason City Specialty Clinic to their new Albert Lea home with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Albert Lea Specialty Medical Services provided by the Mason City Clinic will offer urology; podiatry; ear, nose and throat (ENT); and psychiatry services.

The ceremony began with a few words by Albert Lea Mayor Rich Murray. He welcomed those who had come to the event and gave his best wishes to the new clinic.

President of the Mason City Clinic, Dr. Christopher Adams, was one of two main speakers at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Adams is a urologist and will be one of the four specialists practicing at the new clinic.

Adams spoke about his concerns regarding the lack of health care in rural areas. He said, due to the low numbers of urologists in the area, he is sometimes called to go to hospitals as far away as Des Moines, Waterloo and Cedar Falls.

It is unsafe, he said, for patients to have to drive two or three hours for the care they need, especially in emergency situations requiring specialists like an OB-GYN.

Adams explained there are many reasons for the shrinking health care availability in rural Minnesota and Iowa.

“There’s a lot of economical factors that are at play,” he said. “It’s a struggle. It really is.”

One reason he gave for the shortage is that fewer people are going into medical professions. Another reason is that rural hospitals are no longer able to run independently and must instead become part of big health care corporations. Adams hopes the opening of the Mason City Specialty Clinic will be the first step in solving the health care access problem.

“We are so pleased to be in this new office space and want to make sure the community knows we’re here,” Adams said. “We consider southern Minnesota an extension of our community. And when we saw, back in 2017 [or] 2018 when the Mayo Clinic abruptly left, we saw a gap in health care. We saw people suffering and unable to see the specialists that they needed and getting the health care that they need. … [We’re] looking forward to healing and making people better in southern Minnesota.”

Brad Arends, president of the Albert Lea Healthcare Coalition, said he was optimistic about the outlook of health care in Albert Lea. He said in addition to three doctors who would like to practice in Albert Lea, he also knows of two retired physicians who would like to work in the city on a part-time basis.

Getting health care services in Albert Lea has not been an easy process.

“When MercyOne left, it was a shock … and then there was sadness and grief,” Arends said.

“We thought we had a replacement and literally in the last several weeks, we lost that,” he continued, speaking about when the United Hospital District of Blue Earth announced in August they would no longer be opening a clinic in Albert Lea.

Arends said the opening of the Mason City Clinic is the first step in a three-step process the Albert Lea Healthcare Coalition has planned. The steps do not not appear in any particular order.

The second step, he said, is opening a business clinic. This is a project Arends said the coalition is working on daily.

“When would we like to have it done? Yesterday,”  he said. “It just doesn’t go that fast. … This is the first step.”

The third step of the plan is to get primary care back in Albert Lea. Arends said this step will be one of their main focuses in 2025.

“We’ll be spending all of our time over the next year, probably, searching for that next partner, and we’ve already started the search,” he said. “That’s our mission.”

Arends thanked the tenants of the building space such as Hearing Associates and Big Stone Therapies for their continued support during the opening of the Mason City Clinic.

He closed his speech by reminding people about the coalition’s Building for the Future Gala coming up on Saturday.

The specialty clinic will be open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and is at 2440 Bridge Ave. in part of the former Herberger’s. Those wanting to make an appointment with any of the four specialists at the clinic can call 1-800-622-1411.