NU Medical

Center seeks

$1.25 million

in local

donations

Renovation,

expansion at

hospital, clinic to

cost $4.5 million

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- New Ulm Medical Center is embarking on a capital campaign to help fund a $4.5 million renovation and expansion at the hospital and clinic in New Ulm.

According to chairman of the New Ulm Medical Center Board of Trustees, the expansion plans are driven by the needs of the community, and the center is looking to the community for support in the venture.

Most of the money for the expansion is coming from cost savings, monetary reserves and from Allina Health Systems, the parent company of New Ulm Medical Center. But the center hopes to raise $1.25 million in private local donations through its campaign, "Investing in Tomorrow, Today."

According to Steve Spilman, chairman of the center's board of trustees, the expansion is intended to meet some immediate, pressing needs in the facility. The emergency room at the hospital will be expanded 6,000 square feet, and another 1,000 square feet will be added for urgent care at the hospital. These, said Spilman, are the highest priority needs at the hospital.

"The emergency room was designed to handle about 6,000 patients a year," said Spilman. "Last year we had around 9,000 people stop at the ER."

The local governing board conducted a community survey about a year ago about the needs at the hospital. The emergency room and the urgent care facilities were at the top of the list of local people's concerns, Spilman said.

"We listen to our health care professionals, too, our physicians and nurses," said Spilman.

"We, the local board, made the decision to go ahead with the expansion."

The expansion is also designed to provide more exam space for physicians and their patients. Over the past ten years, New Ulm Medical Center has aggressively recruited physicians, and now has 39 on staff. Each doctor needs several exam rooms so patients can be prepared and ready for the doctor's examination without extra waiting.

Spilman said the New Ulm Medical Center may be owned by Allina Health Systems, which with its Medica insurance group is the largest health care organization in the state, but the center is a community facility, serving mostly people within a 20-mile radius, and governed by the local Board of Trustees. The board is responsible for the health care assets, and works closely with Allina, which is responsible for the facility's operations.

It is the responsibility of the local board, said Spilman, to represent the community and provide the health care services it needs.

The capital campaign comes at a time when Allina has had some unfavorable publicity. Attorney General Mike Hatch is investigating reports of unusual expenditures, and Allina is also the subject of a federal grand jury investigation.

Spilman said the investigations are "a distraction," but ultimately have little effect on local health care needs. The Medical Center still needs a larger emergency room and urgent care area, and the investigations won't change that fact, he said.

"We need to have a facility that people in the area want to use. We need the type of services and quality of services people want to use. Without that, we won't have a health care dividend (revenues in excess of operation costs) to reinvest.

"I believe Allina is on the up and up. I also believe the attorney general is looking out for the best interests of the people of Minnesota and the New Ulm community.

"How can it have anything but a good result?" said Spilman of the investigation. It could show Allina's expenditures are typical of the industry. If it shows abuses, it will give Allina a chance to make changes for the better."