Winona Health in the news: Celebrating 125 on WXOW News 19

Watch the story: wxow.com/winona-health-celebrates-125-years WINONA, Minn. (WXOW) – “You kind of think about across the country how many hospitals were around 125 years ago? Not that many,” said Winona Health President and CEO Rachelle Schultz as she looks back at their successes as a healthcare institution. Winona Health traces its roots back to 1894 when a group of doctors and community members decided to build an 18-bed hospital. Through the years Winona Health has continuously evolved to meet the community’s needs. “It has an impact, fairly significant on the community’s viability,” said Schultz. While healthcare keeps changing, their mission stays the same, “really at the end of the day the vast majority is primary care that’s what we’re about not just for Winona but for rural communities everywhere.” With roughly 40,000 patients a year the community they serve keeps getting bigger. And it’s that community that keeps registered nurse Amparo Oervering coming back to work everyday for the last 46 years. “The community, the people you work with, and the care that the providers give. Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve had so much history here people recognize me in the store people come up to me ‘you delivered my baby’ that is one of the fondest memories that I have,” said Oervering. Part of keeping the community at the forefront is keeping up with technology. Schultz said they do that by being forward thinking. In 2013, Winona Health became the first hospital in the Southeast Minnesota region to use 3D mammography. “Our success is that we’ve been very agile we’ve adapted as new technology comes out we’ve adopted those we’ve changed how we deliver care.” As an independent community-focused healthcare provider Winona Health is recognized among the Top 100 Small & Rural Hospitals in the nation. To help them celebrate 125 years, Winona Health is asking community members to share stories and memories. You can send those to info@winonahealth.org. source: https://wxow.com