New health clinic now doing business in Minot

By Andrew Weeks

MINOT, N.D. • A new health clinic that offers some services tough to find elsewhere in North Dakota has opened its doors in Minot. Legacy Health Clinic is now doing business at 1324 20th Ave. SW. The clinic is already keeping busy. That’s good news for owner Cim Berg-Hooker, who has big plans for the business.

“Our clinic provides the traditional services a health care facility does along with many new and innovative specialties,” she said. “We’re the first health care clinic in Minot to offer IV therapy, and one of the very few clinics in the area to specialize in medical marijuana.”

Ever since she was young she’s had a passion for helping others, she said, which is what led her to pursue a career in the medical field. Through the years she has worked in a variety of specialties, including emergency care, Alzheimer’s facilities, pain management, and primary care. Eventually, she felt a tug in a different direction.

“I decided to become a nurse practitioner so I could take care of patients in a different way,” she said. “And then I decided to open a clinic.”

It took some time to get all of the ducks in a row — finding a building, seeking approval from the city, going through the necessary insurance hoops — but eventually things lined up. By August everything seemed to have come together and she opened Legacy Health Clinic.

What’s more, she did it on her own while working another job.

“Normally, a lot of people open a clinic with a partner, but I decided to do this on my own,” she said, but noting she one day plans to have more in-house providers.

With her nurse practitioner license, she still travels to Watford City, some two hours away, to work in the urgent care facility there on weekends.

“I was doing that full time and trying to get this business going,” she said.

Berg-Hooker employs four staff members. She said she hopes her experience in a variety of specialities gives her current and future patients confidence and “some peace of mind, because I have really seen it all, so there’s nothing you can be afraid to tell me.”

Some may question her offering medical marijuana, while others may applaud it. What she says about that, however, is this: “We are the only clinic in the Minot area to offer IV therapy and one of the very few to specialize in medical marijuana. Both of these health treatments are fairly new to the North Dakota area, but many states have been using them for years. We saw the health benefits they provide and wanted to make them available to patients in North Dakota.”

The North Dakota Department of Health lists eight medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, but as of this writing Legacy Health was not yet on the list.

Berg-Hooker said IV therapy is a hydration method that is a fairly easy and much faster way to hydrate a person and provide needed nutrients and vitamins, because it goes right into the bloodstream. The therapy helps those who not only may be dehydrated or malnourished, but also people who may feel anxious or depressed among a number of other health conditions.

It is amazing what proper hydration will do for a person, Berg-Hooker said.

Apparently others are recognizing its benefits, too. She has patients who travel for hours for the treatment and her clinic’s other offerings.

“I have patients that have come from Dickinson. … I have patients come from all over,” she said. “I have some patients, even from as far as the Fargo area, who have come to get their medical marijuana certification.”

ARVIG SAYS IT IS PLANNING TO EXPAND AND UPGRADE ITS FIBER NETWORK TO 10G STARTING NEXT SPRING IN

IMAGES WERE TAKEN NEAR PELICAN RAPIDS, MINN., DURING A PREVIOUS FIBER CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN 2019. IMAGES: COURTESY OF ARVIG