CentraCare Health-Monticello is celebrating 50 years of caring for the community with a picnic in Ellison Park, Monticello, Thursday, Aug. 6, from 3-7 p.m.
Families are invited to attend for a picnic lunch, with complimentary popcorn and snow cones, a bounce house, live music, an ambulance tour and a petting zoo.
Formerly known as the Monticello-Big Lake Hospital, then New River Medical Center, the campus is now a 25-bed critical-access hospital, which provides acute inpatient rehabilitation, emergency care and an 89-bed care center.
It incorporates the Monticello Cancer Center, birth center, wound care with a hyperbaric chamber, the Monticello Medical Group, a sleep center, diabetes care, respiratory care, orthopedics, surgery and imaging services to name a few. The Monticello Clinic also operates out of the same building.
The hospital first came into being in 1929 when Dr. William E. Hart and his wife Mildred, a registered nurse, saw patients at their Monticello office.
In 1936, the Harts practice was licensed by the State of Minnesota as a five-bed hospital after two young men were confined to Dr. Hart’s care following a car accident.
It was not always possible to transport sick patients to hospitals in St. Cloud or the Metro area. The Hart Hospital continued to grow to meet needs of the community and in 1941, it was expanded to 15 licensed beds.
As Dr. Hart approached retirement age, a hospital district was formed. In 1961 it included the small towns of Monticello and Big Lake and the Townships of Becker, Big Lake, Monticello and Silver Creek. The Township of Otsego was added in 1962.
To become a member of the district, each village or township board had to pass a resolution proclaiming their intent to join the district and then hold a special election if so petitioned by their constituents.
To fund construction and equipping a new hospital building, the hospital district asked voters to approve a general obligation bond that would be used to acquire hospital facilities and provide working capital.
Construction of the new hospital building began in March of 1964 and the new hospital opened July 1, 1965. The hospital remained the financial responsibility of local property tax payers until it was taken over by CentraCare Health April 1, 2013.
Joining the CentraCare collaborative network, which includes hospitals in St. Cloud, Long Prairie, Melrose, Monticello, Paynesville and Sauk Centre, six nursing homes, senior housing in six communities, 18 clinics, and four pharmacies, added a considerable measure of support to the small community hospital, expanding services, improving the quality of care, providing economies of scale and bringing more of the best in modern medicine close to home for local residents.
CentraCare also operates numerous specialty services, including the CentraCare Heart & Vascular Center, Coborn Cancer Center and the CentraCare Kidney Program.
