page_title: Minneapolis
section_title: Health and utilities
hierarchical_section_title: Minneapolis / Infrastructure / Health and utilities
caption_attribution_description: English: Oak Grove St., Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
context_page_description: Minneapolis is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the seat of Hennepin County, the state's most populous county. As of 2019, Minneapolis has an estimated population of 429,606, making it the 46th-largest city in the United States, the 8th-largest in the Midwestern United States, and the second-most densely populated large city in the region behind Chicago. Minneapolis and its neighbor Saint Paul make up the Twin Cities, with Minneapolis being the larger of the two. The Twin Cities metro and their surrounding suburbs contain about 3.64 million people, making it the third-largest economic and population center in the Midwest and the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States.
  Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. The city is abundantly rich in water, with 13 lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls; many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.
context_section_description: Minneapolis has seven hospitals, four ranked among America's best by U.S. News & World Report—Abbott Northwestern Hospital (part of Allina), Children's Hospitals and Clinics, Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) and the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Minneapolis VA Medical Center, Shriners Hospitals for Children and Allina's Phillips Eye Institute 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 200 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.
  Hennepin Healthcare opened in 1887 as City Hospital and was also known as Minneapolis General Hospital, Hennepin County General Hospital and HCMC. A public teaching hospital and Level I trauma center, the HCMC safety net counted 643,739 clinic visits and 111,307 emergency and urgent care visits in 2019. In prior years responsible for about 18% of Minnesota's uncompensated care, HCMC provided much less uncompensated care in 2014 because, after the Affordable Care Act came into effect, its charity care declined more than bad debt went up.
  Funded in part by assessments on commercial properties, in 2009 Ambassadors of the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District (DID) began working on 120 blocks of downtown to improve its cleanliness, friendliness and acceptability of behavior. They are employees of Block by Block, a company in Nashville, Tennessee that serves 46 U.S. cities.
  Utility providers are regulated monopolies: Xcel Energy supplies electricity, CenterPoint Energy supplies gas, CenturyLink provides landline telephone service, and Comcast provides cable service. 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 1,000 mi (1,610 km) of streets and 400 mi (640 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.
caption: A snow emergency
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