By Solvejg Wastvedt

MPR News/90.1 FM

Hennepin County Medical Center will continue operations as normal while Super Bowl LII takes over much of downtown Minneapolis, HCMC officials said Friday.

“We’re going to continue to provide the same services we provide every day including our clinic services and all the other services,” emergency manager Mark Lappe said.

HCMC is located across South 6th Street from U.S. Bank Stadium, where road closures started Tuesday. HCMC includes a Level 1 trauma center available for seriously ill or injured patients 24/7.

Lappe said helicopters will be able to continue to take off and land at HCMC.

“Our air medical helicopters would communicate with the (Federal Aviation Administration) and then they get authority to be able to bring patients into the hospitals in the metro region,” Lappe said.

Lappe said the facility just finalized a plan to ensure access to its loading dock and has plans in place to deal with any disease outbreaks or more serious emergencies during the Super Bowl.

“We have to be ready in case we see a surge of patient needs from the people that are coming here to enjoy the (Super Bowl). Normally there’s not a big increase in in-patient needs, there’s some increase in the emergency department and then some increase in EMS volumes,” Lappe said.

HCMC is telling its employee to carpool or take public transit to cope with increased traffic.