On Thursday, the very hospital they imagined, which has expanded ten-fold, celebrated 130 years of health care in Webster County.

“Everything that was started in the past is still important today,” said Leah Glasgo, current president of UnityPoint Health — Fort Dodge, during a hospital-wide celebration. “As Tom said, to have a hospital that’s successful and to have a health care system that’s successful, we need three things — a visionary board, a committed physician group and wonderful employees. I’m happy to report that today, we have all three of them. As we move forward and celebrate the care and compassion that happens in this organization, I thank you all that were part of the past, and I’m so grateful for all of you that are part of today and in our future that we can carry on this good work in our community.”

Those eight nurses in 1894 created the first hospital in Fort Dodge, the Haskell House. The hospital included 18 beds, a waiting room, kitchen, and operating suite.

Now 130 years later, UnityPoint Health has more than 100 physicians on staff and approximately 1,200 staff members. It sees more than 19,000 people annually through the doors of the emergency room, and more than 305,000 people through its clinics. Approximately 3,800 surgeries also happen every year.

-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla
These Christmas tree ornaments commemorate 130 years of health care in Fort Dodge.

“Our board members really care about health care in our community,” said Sue Thompson, former CEO of the hospital. “They are visionary, as are our physician leaders. It is all about relationships whether it’s about getting together with the Iowa Health System to become part of a bigger system, whether it’s recruiting great governance members for the future or leaders to take this organization forward, it’s all about human relationships. We’re in the people business.”

Former CEO Tom Tibbitts also provided remarks at the anniversary celebration and noted that historically, the Haskell House became St. Joseph’s Mercy in 1909 and in 1932, Lutheran Hospital was added. Tibbitts noted that in 1973 a merger began which combined the two.

“In 1974, the merger was final,” said Tibbitts. “It was a chore, but they did an amazing job with a merger that took two separate religious hospitals and made them one.”

Tibbitts joined the staff in 1974 and said the focus was on how to combine the two different cultures and medical staffs and make them one that worked well together.

“That was a chore, but it was fun,” said Tibbitts.

-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla
Onica Jepsen, a registered nurse, looks at historic photos of UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center Thursday.

In 1980, Tibbitts became CEO and added Thompson, a nurse, at the time to his staff. She was the only woman at the time to be in the administrative staff.

“Sue could talk to the docs on a level basis and it was one of the best decisions I ever made,” he said.

Thompson became chief operating officer and later followed Tibbitts as CEO.

“From 1980 to 2010, was all about growth for us,” said Tibbitts. “There were three key things in those years. We were growing services. We bought Highland Park and retrofitted it into a rehab center. We expanded outpatient, we expanded OB and we were just growing but the key thing was regionalization.”

Tibbitts said his board at the time wanted to expand outside of Fort Dodge and later added four regional hospitals — Humboldt, Pocahontas, Sac City, and Clarion.

-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla
Tom Tibbitts, former CEO of UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center, talks about the history of local medical care.

“The board also said if we’re going to have a regional impact, we have to bring in more physicians and we’re going to do it with a regional network of physicians,” said Tibbitts. “We started PPMC, Physician Practice Management Corporation and had 13 clinics around the area including two in Fort Dodge.”

In 1997 Fort Dodge Medical Center joined the hospital, which Tibbitts said was important because it had great specialties. Though, they didn’t like the name PPMC and renamed the hospital to Trimark.

By 2003, Trimark had 61 physicians, 454 employees and 27 clinics in Fort Dodge and the surrounding area.

“We truly had become and we changed our name from Trinity Regional Hospital to Trinity Regional Medical Center,” said Tibbitts. “And then it became UnityPoint.”

Later the hospital joined Iowa Health System which helped it to grow in additional specialties.

-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla
Sue Thompson, a former CEO of UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center, speaks Thursday during a celebration of 130 years of health care in Fort Dodge.

“There were three service lines that we felt that we needed help with — cardiology, oncology, and pediatrics,” said Thompson. “For cardiology, we got some help from Mercy. For oncology we got help from McFarland Clinic, and for pediatrics, we got help from Blank Children’s Hospital. It was a wonderful decision. By putting these specialty services together, we were able to recruit and retain some really remarkable physician leaders.”