Medical

center

hopes to

expand

Capital campaign to raise $1.25

million to help fund project

By CHRIS VETTER

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm Medical Center officials hope to expand the hospital in the next few years by upgrading the emergency room and expanding physician exam rooms.

Brian Kief, hospital administrator, said the medical center will likely begin a capital campaign this summer to generate money for the projects.

Kief said his goal is to raise about $1.25 million from the community within the next five years. The hospital is seeking to upgrade the facility at a cost of $3.5-$4 million. The remainder of the funding would come from within the hospital and Allina Health Systems.

Kief said the expansion will strengthen the hospital's role as a primary care provider.

"Our ultimate goals haven't changed a lot. Our goal is making sure we are providing high quality, state-of-the-art primary care," Kief said. "We want to do that by being a partner to the community, having the right employees in place and being a good employer."

Kief said the hospital currently offers top-flight health care, but that level of care will slip if improvements and upgrades are not made.

"We're at a point where we're out of exam rooms," he said. "One of the problems is we don't have enough space."

Under the tentative expansion plans, a larger emergency room/intensive care unit would free up some space for exam rooms. The emergency room would offer more privacy to patients and more space to store equipment.

Kief said it is too early to speculate when expansion would occur. Hospital administrators and board members have discussed expansion plans for three years, he added.

"It's more in the vision stage than actual planning stage," he said. "But it's something we know has to be done."

Kief is no stranger to hospital expansions. He guided the 1999 expansion project of United Hospital in Blue Earth before he became administrator in New Ulm.

A group of hospital managers, board members and physicians met recently to outline the hospital's five-year strategic plan. The group outlined goals ranging from increasing patient satisfaction to attracting and retaining high quality hospital workers.

"We want our employees to ultimately believe this is the best place to work in Southern Minnesota," Kief said. "We're not there yet; that's why it's a goal."

Kief said he wants to see the hospital continue to grow its programs in chemotherapy, orthopedics and oncology.

"Primarily, our focus in growth is to add those physicians within the clinic," he said.

Kief hopes that the expansion and increased focus in those specific areas will bring more area residents to the medical center.

"We want the community to trust us as their number one provider on health care issues," he said.

While the expansion is a top priority, Kief said the hospital will continue to focus on purchasing new equipment. New machines for radiology, ultrasounds, mammograms and flouroscopy -- a moving X-ray -- top the list. However, Kief said each item costs between $70,000-$250,000.

The hospital is developing a "bias for growth" in services that result in new markets and increased market share, Kief said. But it is difficult to tell how medicine will grow because of technology advances, he said.

"We can't predict the kind of services that will be necessary in five years," Kief said.

The hospital and clinic merged in 1996. Kief believes much of the hospital staff's attention became focused internally on the merger. Now, the hospital is seeking to reach out and offer more programs to area residents.

"We want to be more involved in the community, through screening seminars, discussions on suicide prevention, osteoporosis and colon screenings," Kief said.

Kief said the hospital is facing several challenges. First, Medicare payments are not growing with the rate of inflation, Kief contends. Thus, when the hospital performs a surgery, it often loses money on the operation.

Another challenge is filling the numerous hospital positions. In past years, women dominated the medical workforce. Women now have so many more career choices, fewer are entering medicine, he explained.

"It makes it a challenge for us to make it a good career choice," Kief said. "We need to differentiate ourselves from all the other opportunities."