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New Ulm Medical Center celebrates 125 years of healthcareNew Ulm Medical Center begins a year-long celebratory recognition of 125 years of health care in New Ulm starting in November. Over the past 125 years, health care in New Ulm has gone through many transitions in its buildings, its people and its services.  Surgery at St. Alexander Hospital, New Ulm, 1903. “One thing has remained constant - the compassionate care given to the patients of New Ulm and surrounding communities,” said Lori Wightman, NUMC president. Health care in New Ulm traces its heritage to 1883 when Father Alexander Berghold, organizer of the Catholic Church in New Ulm, founded St. Alexander Hospital. The need for a hospital in the community became apparent when a devastating tornado hit the city Friday, July 15, 1881. About a dozen people were killed and several hundreds injured. There were many people who needed aid, but no where to take them for treatment. It was at this time that the Sisters of Christian Charity opened their school, which had not been destroyed, to care for these victims. Overnight, the school Sisters became nursing Sisters; the school, a hospital. Two years later, Father Berghold began a community campaign to raise money to build a “real hospital.” The St. Alexander Hospital, located in a “most picturesque spot under the bluff, overlooking the city from the west,” accepted its first patient on Nov. 1, 1883. In 1884, Sisters from the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ in Fort Wayne, Indiana, agreed to assume responsibility for the operations of the St. Alexander Hospital, allowing the Sisters of Christian Charity to return to their teaching profession. In 1912, the name of the hospital was changed to Loretto Hospital, when a new building replaced the 1883 structure. The present building was built in 1962, with several additions and renovation projects completed. Union Hospital, a non-sectarian hospital located across town from Loretto Hospital, opened its doors to patients in 1915. For many years, the two hospitals in New Ulm worked together to meet the needs of patients in the area. On Jan. 1, 1980, Loretto and Union hospitals merged, creating Sioux Valley Hospital. By 1983, all services were relocated to the former Loretto Hospital campus and the Union Hospital building was demolished. Then, in 1974,the New Ulm Medical Clinic was formed by eight physicians to consolidate three of the city’s five medical practices. Drs. William Black, Carl Fritsche, Milton Kaiser, Peter Kitzberger, William Muesing, Lawrence Ringhofer, Ann Vogel and Howard Vogel joined their practices and opened the new clinic in a building located on the corner of Garden and Center Streets. In 1984, Sioux Valley Hospital agreed to an ownership arrangement with Health Central, a healthcare management company located in Minneapolis. Health Central owned and managed a number of hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare businesses, primarily in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. Between 1984 and the late 1990s Health Central, through a number of mergers and changes became Allina Hospitals & Clinics. New Ulm Medical Center became a fully integrated healthcare organization after the merger between Sioux Valley Hospital and the New Ulm Medical Clinic in 1996. This integration culminated many years of close cooperation between the two facilities, which had been operating on the same campus since 1991, when physicians built a new clinic adjacent to the hospital. At the same time, the two organizations merged their laboratory, radiology and medical records departments. Today, primary care services are provided to residents in a 25-mile radius around New Ulm, including the communities of Sleepy Eye, Hanska, Searles, Courtland, Nicollet, Klossner, Lafayette and Winthrop. Many patients drive 60 – 80 miles to receive specialty care services such as Orthopedics, General Surgery, Obstetrics, Psychiatry and Pediatrics at New Ulm Medical Center. The medical center includes a multi-specialty clinic located at the north end of the building. The lower level of the clinic houses physical medicine services (physical, occupational and speech therapies and a therapeutic pool) and health information services. Acute-care hospital services are provided in the four-stories at the south end of the building. “The next chapter of healthcare in New Ulm is off to a great start,” Wightman said. The newly renovated and expanded Surgery Center is scheduled to be completed in early 2009. At about the same time, the Heart of New Ulm project - an initiative which seeks to eliminate heart attacks in New Ulm by 2018 - will begin the initial screening phase of the project. The Heart of New Ulm is expected to draw national attention as outcomes from the project are shared over the next 10 years. “New faces and new services continue to be added to the roster at NUMC. But, from Nov. 1, 1883 to today the spirit of compassion and innovation continue to be the strength behind the success at New Ulm Medical Center,” Wightman said.
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