---

Description

---

Learn about Olmsted Medical Center
Olmsted Medical Center OMC a notforprofit organization has been southeastern Minnesotas hometown healthcare provider since 1949 OMCs 160 clinicians and 1000 healthcare professionals serve at 16 locations including a multispecialty clinic a Level IV trauma hospital with walkin urgent care and 24hour emergency room two FastCare retail clinics in Rochester Shopko stores and 10 community branch clinics

OMC has more than 20 specialties and is best known for its convenient quality personal primary care
Each year the Olmsted Medical Center team sees 250000 patients performs 3000 major surgical operations cares for 38000 patients in our Emergency and Urgent Care Departments and delivers 1000 babies

The organization is governed by a Board of Trustees whose primary function is to see that OMC serves the public interest A Board of Governors made up of clinicians and the chief administrative officer governs OMCs daytoday operations

Striving for innovation OMCs Research Department supports clinical research and the organization participates in the education of medical nursing technical and other students from a variety of institutions as well as continuing education for staff

Our mission
The delivery of exceptional patient care focusing on caring quality safety and service

Our vision
To be the healthcare provider of choice in our service area by leading in quality access and service

Our core values
Our patients come first

Every employee is a caregiver

Our employees are the key to our success

OMC is an active contributing partner in the communities it serves

We have a duty to position and prepare OMC for the future

---

History

---

Our history
The story of Olmsted Medical Center like most stories begins quotOnce upon a timequot

At the end of World War II there were only three clinicians in Olmsted County who were not employed by the Mayo Clinic two in Rochester and one in Stewartville Several of Rochesters civic leaders including Harry Harwick then Mayo Clinic administrator felt a need to attract additional nonMayo clinicians to the community But the existing hospitals were limited to Mayo clinicians As a result as one official put it quotit became increasingly difficult to attract general practitioners to the Rochester area It was felt that a community hospital was essential to correct the situationquot

In 1947 a referendum was passed to permit a threequarter million dollar county bond issue to build a hospital Unfortunately the site originally selected near Bear Creek was flooded the next year and the county decided that would not be a good place to put a hospital Eventually the state gave the county a portion of the state hospital land Construction finally got underway in 1954 and the Olmsted Community Hospital opened in June 1955

Meanwhile Dr Harold Wente who had married a lady from Rochester finished his medical training and reviewed practice opportunities Lured by the promise of the proposed hospital Dr Wente opened his office on July 15 1949 on the second floor of the Lawlers Dry Cleaners on Broadway in downtown Rochester where the parking ramp next to Michaels Restaurant now stands Dr Wente had little more than a plan for a career as a solo general practitioner at this timeand no idea of what would eventually transpire In 1952 however Dr Wente was joined by a college friend who had gone to medical school after infantry service in the war and a third partner joined them the following year By the summer of 1953 they had outgrown their office so they built a new office building on Third Avenue SE and took the name quotOlmsted Medical Groupquot

When Olmsted Community Hospital began to take shape Dr Wente thought that a small hospital staffed only by general practitioners would not succeed So when the hospital opened Olmsted Medical Group included a surgeon an obstetrician and an ophthalmologist and was thus beginning to become a multispecialty group IBM came to Rochester in 1956 and Rochester doubled its size in the next 10 years Many of the new young families came to the new Medical Group which added on to its building several times and opened a second clinic in northwest Rochester In 1970 the Group clinics were brought together in a new building around the comer on Ninth Street SE one block east of Broadway

A series of firsts
The early success of Olmsted Medical Group was in large part due to the vision energy and personality of Dr Wente He established a multispecialty group that has throughout the years been at the forefront of many developments in the delivery of medical care In 1963 Olmsted Medical Group became one of the first incorporated group practices of the country and because of that was also among the first to be able to offer a retirement plan and other fringe benefits to its employees actually several years before such plans became legally recognized The Group became one of the first to computerize its business systems and it was one of the first groups in the country to develop satellite clinics in nearby communities beginning with Hayfield in 1972 It was one of the first to have a medical director to become accredited to have an organized quality assurance program and to establish a patient education department

Olmsted Community Hospital was also initially successful Soon after opening it organized the first hospital auxiliary in Rochester and in 1968 a new obstetrical wing and second operating room were added The hospital was again renovated in 197980 followed by another major modernization and expansion in 198586

Changes in Medicare in 1983 with the advent of diagnosisrelated groups DRGs and the shift of most surgery to the outpatient setting resulted in a marked decrease in hospital utilization nationwide Small hospitals such as Olmsted Community were seriously threatened It was felt that the only way for the hospital to survive was for Olmsted Medical Group to increase both the number of patients it cared for and the range of services offered From 1986 to 1990 the Group more than doubled in size adding a number of new specialties as well as six new branch offices The main Rochester office was enlarged in 198788 and growth has continued at a more moderate pace since then

As the Medical Group became a larger organization it required expensive facilities and equipment and became important as an institutionmore important and needing to be more permanent than its clinicians The clinicians felt that they had outgrown the model of a professional corporation and were willing to give up dividends and capital gains in order to achieve a tax exempt status which would make retaining earnings more productive The Group became notforprofit in 1988 and in 1993 became a 501c3 corporation and was approved by the IRS for tax exempt status By doing this the clinicians gave up ownership but maintained local control and kept the organization financially healthy The result was an organization that is more stable and secure one that is better suited to survive the continuing turmoil of health systems reform and thus provides all of its employees including clinicians greater job security It can also better provide the facilities and equipment that Olmsted Medical Center needs to serve patients

While Olmsted Medical Group was expanding by adding new specialists the hospital did not attract other clinicians to Rochester As the Groups clinicians constituted almost the entire medical staff of the hospital the Group and hospital had become a de facto healthcare system one with two heads that didnt always work well together Each institution had to look out for its own interest no matter how hard they tried to cooperate After the Group became notforprofit it was politically feasible to look at a merger with the hospital This process began in early 1994 and an agreement was reached in late 1995 On January 1 1996 the hospital was transferred from the County to Olmsted Medical Group now named Olmsted Medical Center