ABOVE: Bernie Reuter, a Registered Nurse at United Hospital District, points down the hall of the clinic’s new nursing station in the orthopedics department during a tour on Wednesday evening. Dozens of community members went through the new facility as part of the grand opening on Wednesday.

FAIRMONT– Several hundred community members showed up to celebrate the grand opening of United Hospital District’s (UHD) Fairmont Clinic on Wednesday evening. The Blue Earth-based independent health care system has been working on the Fairmont facility since the end of 2021 when it was announced a purchase agreement was reached with the former Dulcimer Medical Center.

Groundbreaking on the $4 million expansion of the facility, located at 1950 Center Creek Drive, took place in early September 2023. Since then, construction crews have been busy making the additions the facility requires to meet the level of care UHD leaders believe are needed in the area.

At the start of the event on Wednesday, CEO Rick Ash said, “We originally started down on 1st Street (in Fairmont) with the original clinic and you can see today that we’ve grown quite a bit.”

The addition includes 12 new exam rooms, two new procedure rooms, offices and nursing stations.

Along with the expansion, work was done on the existing facility, which was originally built around 2007, to modernize it and help it blend with the new addition.

As part of Wednesday’s festivities, community members had the opportunity to tour the facility and UHD staff was on hand to show off the new additions and talk about the services that will come as a result.

The facility; however, isn’t the only thing that’s new. Over the past few months, UHD has also brought in several new healthcare providers, some of which will divide their time between the Fairmont location and the Blue Earth location. These include three new female provides to do obstetrics and gynecology. Ash said that they are still actively recruiting.

“We’re excited to continue to grow and promote health care services in the Fairmont area. At the end of the day, UHD’s mission is committed to care, committed to you. That means we’re committed to quality care and providing it to you,” Ash said.

Along with thanking the contractors, board of directors and staff, Ash said, “thank you to all of the patients and community members who support us and trust us to provide their healthcare.”

Dr. Bob Karp, family medicine and obstetrics, also spoke on Wednesday. He shared some about the evolution of UHD and its quick growth and pointed out that the patients have long been asking for more services.

“We have several family practice doctors now, we have orthopedics, surgery, urology. We’re bringing what we can to the area and expanding as we need to,” Karp said.

He also said, as Ash has previously indicated was the catalyst for the expansion, that this was all done with a desire to keep care close to home.

Mayor Lee Baarts also spoke during Wednesday’s event and thanked UHD for its investment in the community. Several other community leaders including Chamber President Kandi Menne and City Administrator Matt Skaret were in attendance, along with council members, city staff and local business owners.