Submitted by Mark Alan Mershon
Arneson Methodist Library, Park Nicollet Health System, St. Louis Park, MN
In late fall of 2005 we opened our consumer health library at Park Nicollet Health Services. Park Nicollet is a multi-specialty clinic system that includes 25 neighborhood clinics, including a main center in St. Louis Park, and Methodist hospital a 426 bed facility, with 960 physicians on staff, in suburban Minneapolis.
We wanted our consumer health library to be unique in the area. By that I mean we wanted to set up a space separate from the hospital and clinic library and we wanted to staff that space whenever it is open. We did this by sharing the reference desk duties amongst our two full-time, and three part-time staff. In our research we discovered that most hospitals or clinics that offer consumer health information do so in their existing libraries, and a patron would have to first locate the library, then the consumer health collection, and then locate a staff member to assist them with their query. We wanted to avoid that frustration, and we have. It was a struggle to staff and service two libraries without extra FTEs, but I would have to call our first year an unqualified success.
Avrom Schwartz, Penny Marsala, Nancy Barron, Mark Mershon, and Linda Sperber
We saw just under 6000 patrons and did 744 searches for those patrons. We are located outside the Family Surgery waiting lounge and do a brisk walk up business of family members and patients heading into surgery and have also just added a new e-mail form to assist patrons on the web, making it possible to use our services from their homes and offices. Visit our web site at: www.parknicollet.com/healthlibrary. In our first full year we have maintained hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday-Friday. In that time we have answered queries ranging from Alzheimer’s disease to Zellweger syndrome. We have a basic book collection of about 150 non-circulating titles and we have three patient kiosks with our webpage and links to several of our databases, MDConsult, Ebsco Health Library, Micromedex, and of course the gold standard for consumer health information, Medlineplus.gov
We try to place at least two pieces of information in the hands of every patron who asks a question. We see the year ahead as a chance to grow our business by referral and training our clinicians about our services. We anticipate growth in our Ask a Medical Librarian form and look forward to assisting our patients and the public with shifting through the puzzling maze of health information on the web.