ABOVE: United Hospital District’s Family Medicine Physician, K.C. Riley-Schweer, goes over the new ultrasound machine and its functionality. This and a transcutaneous bilirubin meter used for newborn jaundice screening were made possible through a $65,267 grant from the Fairmont Community Hospital Foundation.

FAIRMONT – Thanks to a $65,267 grant from the Fairmont Community Hospital (FCH) Foundation, United Hospital District (UHD) in Fairmont has received an obstetric (OB) care ultrasound and a transcutaneous bilirubin meter for newborn jaundice screening.

Foundation Director Kayla Caven said they opened up their grant process to any nonprofit healthcare organizations last year, when previously they had only assisted Mayo Clinic. Their grant program is open year-round, accepting applications from organizations seeking to improve their services. With this grant to UHD, Caven said they are addressing a need.

“We felt that OB in our area is very greatly needed since they closed the OB at the Fairmont [Mayo] hospital,” she said. “There are a lot of new families that can benefit from it. The overall need of care close to home has been a huge thing for the community, and the fact that Mayo is getting rid of services is greatly impacting everybody.”

UHD Chief Operating Officer Jeffon Seely echoed this need as he addressed why they chose to ask for an ultrasound machine and bilirubin meter.

“With the increase that we’re seeing in terms of deliveries and moms who need care, a good, solid ultrasound is extremely important,” he said. “We listen to the people doing the work every day, from Bernie Reuter to the providers to the nurses. Ultrasound was something that was top of the list.”

UHD reports that from the care of UHD-Fairmont, births in the UHD system grew from 112 in 2024 to 173 in 2025. Family Medicine Physician K.C. Riley-Schweer said the prenatal, birthing and postnatal are a collaboration between UHD Fairmont and UHD Blue Earth.

“We see patients here for prenatal and postnatal care, and then obviously newborns all the way up until our geriatric patients we see,” she said. “We do deliveries over in Blue Earth, and we can deliver anything after 36 weeks. We do have now, Allina is able to provide tele-NICU for us too if we need that. It’s a nice service.”

With the bilirubin tests, Riley-Schweer said it helps decrease the number of times babies need to be poked and tested.

“Before the screening tool we just received, we’d have to send all that over to Blue Earth and wait between 12 hours plus to get that lab run,” she said. “Versus this, we can screen the baby, and then if there’s concern beyond that, we can get the blood test at that point.”

By providing this grant, Caven said this encapsulates everything FCH is about.

“That’s our whole mission, to keep healthcare local,” she said. “It’s huge. The area we grant is our service area, so it’s pretty broad. We don’t want people driving to Mankato, to Rochester, or anything just for a doctor’s appointment. We want those services local.”

The previous ultrasound machine was older and meant for urology, so pictures were sometimes grainy. Now, Riley-Schweer said they are able to see so much more.

“We can bring it into the room,” she said. “They can see the baby moving. They can see growth. We can look for anything concerning, if there’s bleeding or other things going on, listen to heart tones, versus just being able to listen to heart tones for patients, especially new moms who are nervous, or other ones who have had losses before, that are a little bit more anxious.”

From his perspective, Seely said building this section of medical assistance is especially needed in this area.

“We are in a very vulnerable region,” he said. “There are no OB services from Worthington to Austin, from Algona up to Mankato, which leaves Martin County and Faribault County, quite frankly, a healthcare desert. OB and providing solid patient care for all people, but especially for moms and expecting mothers, is absolutely essential because without UHD in Fairmont, Blue Earth, Wells, it could be really, really dire.”

So far, Riley-Schweer said the new equipment has delivered on its positives for patients.

“There’s been a lot of patients that have been very grateful to be able to see the baby early on in their pregnancy,” she said. “It’s cut down on pokes for new babies if it’s not necessary, which is always nice for parents. Wanting to keep as much care close to home as is safely possible for patients has been huge.”