A large radiology room that can be converted into an emergency operating room is one of the new features of St. Luke's Emergency Department. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

DULUTH — Michael Boeselager watched the first helicopter set down atop a new helipad Tuesday morning at St. Luke's hospital. And for the first time, the patient didn't need to cross the street after landing.

"The proximity and speed with which we can get patients inside to receive care has exponentially increased," said Boeselager, vice president of support services for the regional health care provider that opened a new $37.5 million emergency department Tuesday.

The 37-room department is the first of three phases toward a new hospital for St. Luke's, something Essentia Health has been building for the past year just down the street in Duluth's swiftly changing downtown medical district.

"It essentially triples our capacity to serve the region in terms of emergency care and trauma care," Boeselager said. "It matches the level of talent we have in terms of staff and providers — it's a full experience."

Planned long before COVID-19 became a household name and constructed over the past year and a half, Boeselager said the design is amenable to social distancing and isolation. If a "mass casualty event" similar to the 2018 Superior refinery explosion were to occur, the department can also double its capacity.

The hospital said in a statement it also has "the region's most technologically advanced cardiac cath labs and CT scanners."

Bringing the helipad from across the street to just outside the department and expanding the ambulance bay are also big perks, Boeselager said.

As the finishing touches were being made and medical staff and construction workers passed one another in the hallways on Monday, the department was in a state of calm it would likely never see again. Right away on Tuesday at 7 a.m. as the department opened its doors, patients started to arrive.

What becomes of the old emergency department around the corner is still in question. Hospital leaders are looking at possibilities, Boeselager said.

There is no timeline for the next phases of the $300 million St. Luke's expansion, which include building a new hospital tower. St. Luke's, like other hospitals, faced revenue freefalls as COVID-19 restrictions shut down nonemergency care in the early days of the pandemic and forced some layoffs, though not quite on the scale of Essentia's cuts.

Parts of the new 60,000-square-foot emergency department and cardiac cath labs, including a cardiac rehabilitation gym, are still under construction and are set to open Sept. 15.

Boeselager said the new emergency department was developed after dozens of site visits at other hospitals.

"I would stack this up against any that I've seen," he said. "We hope you never have to be here, but if you do this is the kind of place you want to be."