125 years sees healthcare facilities evolve, merge to become one
New Ulm Medical Center is celebrating its 125 anniversary. The spirit of high quality, compassionate health care has triumphed throughout the years as a temporary hospital run by the Sisters of Christian Charity and Father Alexander Berghold has evolved into a state-of-the-art regional hospital.
The need for a hospital in the New Ulm area became apparent in 1881, when a tornado tragically killed more than ten people and injured several hundred. Since there was no hospital in the area, the Sisters of Christian Charity School opened their doors to treat the victims of the tornado. Father Berghold recognized this arrangement was not an adequate long-term solution and launched a community campaign to raise money to build a permanent hospital. Berghold succeeded. St. Alexander Hospital, New Ulm Medical Center's (NUMC) oldest ancestor, accepted its first patient on Nov. 1 1883. In 1912, a new hospital structure was built and St. Alexander changed its name to Loretto Hospital.
Meanwhile community members began planning for a second hospital in New Ulm. Union Hospital opened in 1914. For many years, the two hospitals worked together to meet the needs of patients in the area. On January 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.
The New Ulm Medical Clinic was formed by eight physicians in 1974 to consolidate three of the city’s five medical practices and grew to 24 physicians at the time of the merger.
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 business, primarily in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. Between 1984 and the late 1990’s Health Central, through a number of mergers and changes became Allina Hospitals & Clinics. Allina Hospitals & Clinics is a not-for-profit, health care organization with a network of 19 hospitals and 48 clinics in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
NUMC is an integrated healthcare organization, the result of a 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. The same year, 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, Searles, Courtland, Nicollet, Klossner, Lafayette and Winthrop. Many patients drive 60-80 miles to receive such specialty services as Orthopedics, General Surgery, Obstetrics, Psychiatry and Pediatrics.
