Health and utilities
Minneapolis has five hospitals, three ranked among America's best by U.S. News & World Report—Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) and the University of Minnesota Medical Center. All three were founded under other names during the 1800s and early 1900s. The Britton Center for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Children's Hospitals and Clinics also serve the city. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota is a 75-minute drive away.
Cardiac surgery was developed at the university's Variety Club Hospital, where by 1957, more than two hundred patients had survived open-heart operations, many of them children. Working with surgeon C. Walton Lillehei, Medtronic began to build portable and implantable cardiac pacemakers about this time.
HCMC opened in 1887 as City Hospital and was also known as General Hospital. A public teaching hospital and Level I trauma center, the HCMC safety net sees 350,000 patient visits and 95,000 emergency room visits each year and in 2006 provided about 18% of the uncompensated care given in Minnesota.
Utility providers are regulated monopolies: Xcel Energy supplies electricity, CenterPoint Energy supplies gas, Qwest is the landline telephone provider, and Comcast is the cable service. In 2007 city-wide wireless is to begin, provided for 10 years by US Internet of Minnetonka to residents for about $20 per month and to businesses for $30. The city treats and distributes water and requires payment of a monthly solid waste fee for trash removal, recycling, and drop off for large items. Residents who recycle receive a credit. Hazardous waste is handled by Hennepin County drop off sites. After each significant snowfall, called a Snow Emergency, the Minneapolis Public Works Street Division plows over one thousand miles (1609 km) of streets and four hundred miles (643.7 km) of alleys—counting both sides, the distance between Minneapolis and Seattle and back. Ordinances govern parking on the plowing routes during these emergencies as well as snow shoveling throughout the city.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
