Mayo officials, community members dedicate new Naeve Garden

Published 6:24 am Friday, October 11, 2024

By Sarah Stultz

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Drawing on the history of Naeve Hospital, combined with a nod to the future, Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea officials on Thursday dedicated the new Naeve Garden in a ceremony with Mayo staff and community members.

The garden, which sits on the former footprint of the hospital, incorporates the cornerstone of the 1911 Naeve Hospital into a seating area, as well as an African stone sculpture donated on behalf of the Naeve Health Care Foundation in tribute to the nurses of the Naeve Hospital School of Nursing, Naeve Hospital and Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea.

On the west end of the garden is a plaque honoring 50 years of Fountain Centers with a mounted sobriety coin at the center.

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Robert Albright Jr., regional vice president of Mayo Clinic Health System in southeast Minnesota, said while the event was bittersweet, knowing all of the memories of the former hospital, he hoped it would also be a time to celebrate the legacy of the Albert Lea campus.

“Nothing here is possible without the team,” Albright said. “This team is made up of experts in our allied health staff, our nursing teammates, our administrative colleagues, and none of this happens without the goodwill and faith that’s placed in us by our patients. We earn your trust and we want to continue to do so. We want to demonstrate we’re also investing in your community and really investing in what’s important for the future for our patients that will be to come.”

Albright said rural health care is a challenge and the health system is doing everything it can to continue to build its care in Albert Lea with psychiatric services, addictions medicine, behavioral health, dialysis, family medicine and the Cancer Center.

He also highlighted the kickoff of the emergency department expansion, which will increase capacity to 16 beds, including 10 general care rooms, three safe rooms with lake views and three observation rooms. Security will also be enhanced, and telemedicine capabilities will be available in each room.

Ambulatory surgery and infusion therapy is being relocated to former outpatient spaces and will feature 16 presurgical and postsurgical rooms, a procedure room and enhanced patient flow, according to the health system.

Outpatient Fountain Centers and Behavioral Health was relocated to the second floor of the hospital. All of the renovations are expected to be complete in 18 to 24 months.

Albert Lea Mayor Rich Murray said he loved the way the park and garden looked.

“We look forward as a community to our continued partnership with Mayo Clinic,” Murray said. “You are an important part of our community. You employ a great number of people within this community and the surrounding area and we’re appreciative of that.”

Sumit Bhagra, physician lead for Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin, presided over the opening of a 1911 time capsule that was retrieved from the original hospital when it was taken down in 2023 after an assessment showed the building was no longer safe for occupation.

Stephanie Kibler, executive director of the Freeborn County Historical Museum, and Risha Lilienthal, curator of collections and exhibits at the museum, announced the items in the time capsule, including a penny from 1909; an Evening Tribune from July 10, 1911; another coin from 1911; and a list of patients in City & County Hospital in 1909, what they were hospitalized with and how many days they were in the hospital. The document also stated when the patients’ payments were due.

Bhagra said a new 2024 time capsule was buried under the bench, including items such as a Mayo Clinic face mask from the COVID-19 pandemic, a COVID-19 self-test, information about the health system and its values, a We Salute Veterans coin, 2023 eclipse glasses, an Albert Lea Tribune newspaper from 2024, a cell phone and a letter to future health care leaders.

The last part of the ceremony highlighted the new sculpture at the garden, as well as the sobriety coin.

The sculpture, called “The Healer’s Touch,” is symbolic of the nurses throughout the years and represents the bond between nurses and patients. It is a larger version of the DAISY nursing sculpture, which honors the compassion and care of nurses.

Tricia Dahl, operations administrator on the Albert Lea campus, said 50 years ago, Naeve Hospital opened up a 12-bed unit for chemical dependence, what has come to be known as Fountain Centers, providing a place where patients struggling with substance abuse can find healing, hope and a renewed sense of purpose.

She said the sobriety coin is located a little off the beaten path in the garden to give people a time to reflect when they view it.

Judy Popp-Anderson, former vice president of operations and executive director at Fountain Centers, said 50 years ago addiction to alcohol and drugs was not recognized as a respectable illness.

“Fountain Centers has been a center for amazing recovery … and some would call it miracles,” she said. “People would come in on their last breath almost — their last chance — and would find recovery.”

Fountain Centers sought to support not only the patient but their families as well. Over the years, it provided treatment for adolescents, women and men, and she recognized the team of workers who made that possible.

“Lives were saved in this facility just as they were in the hospital,” she said. “From detox to recovery, people started a new life.”

She wished Fountain Centers many more years of serving and helping people recover.

The event also included a ribbon-cutting with Chamber Ambassadors in-between The Healer’s Touch sculpture and the cornerstone.

Between the garden and the hospital is a new parking area, which includes 22 stalls, half of which are handicapped accessible.

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