OMC opens new Owatonna clinic
The halls of the new OMC Clinic and ambulatory surgery center in Owatonna were filled Monday, as OMC staff provided tours to city officials in the morning, and to the public in the afternoon. Lisa Cochran, center, Main Street Director for the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce, and Mayor Matt Jessop, right, were part of the group to welcome OMC to town. Staff photo by Kay Fate
If the ribbon-cutting and public tours were any indication, Owatonna is ready for Olmsted Medical Center.
The Rochester-based health care facility began seeing patients at it new clinic and ambulatory surgery center on Tuesday, but provided a sneak-peek to city officials Monday morning and a public open house that afternoon.
The new clinic offers extended weekday hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., along with access to on-demand video visits in the evening via OMC MyChart.
Since its origin as a solo medical practice in 1949, OMC has had “very thoughtful growth” in the communities around Rochester and southeastern Minnesota, said Dr. Mark Wilbur, chief medical officer for the organization.
Services locally include family medicine, acute care, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, podiatry and additional visiting specialties.
It will also offer full diagnostic imaging Monday through Friday, and plans to offer orthopedics, pain management, urology, dermatology, ophthalmology and plastic surgery in the future.
Wilbur said “the numbers and data” brought OMC to Owatonna.
“We realized, quite frankly, that a lot of the folks who live around here were seeking health care elsewhere, and were seeking health care with us,” he said. “The location and distance … were lining up to point us in this direction.”
Bringing “a microcosm of OMC” to town is worth noting, Wilbur said.
“If you’re paying attention to health care landscapes in a more rural environment, if anything, these are being cut back,” he said. “We know this, so for some organization to come in and actually offer more than basics, it’s quite a statement.”
The ambulatory surgery center will begin surgical procedures Aug. 28, including things like endoscopies, colonoscopies, biopsies, women’s health and more.
The facility employes about 40 people, said Amy Johnson, director of operations.
“Some specialists will be here each week, some will be here maybe twice a month and some will be here once a month,” she said.
Geneva native Dr. Melissa (Lonning) Richards, an OB-GYN at OMC, said services are continuing to evolve.
Dr. Heidi Gaston, also an OB-GYN, will join the organization in September.
“She’s a big grab for Olmsted Medical Center and for the community,” Richards said. “She’ll provide prenatal care as well as gynecologic care,” and is also a surgeon.
While Richards practices out of the Rochester facility, she’s “hoping to help out a little. I’m excited to come back and see some of my high school classmates.”
OMC typically delivers about 900 babies annually – most of them at the Women’s Health Pavilion birth center in Rochester.
Still, Richards said, “we know that when people need to get health care, sometimes that 45-minute drive doesn’t happen, so it’s important to have those relationships.”
She said the clinic is “working on creating a relationship” with Allina Hospital in Owatonna.
“It’s about collaboration, right? Working closely with other organizations, I think, is always a good option,” Richards said.
The birth center in Rochester has a Level II nursery, “so we’re able to take care of babies (delivered) after 34 weeks,” she said. “We also have a great relationship with our friends down the street, too.”
Richards was referring to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys Campus, which has a Level III neonatal intensive care unit.
Owatonna, she said, “deserves really, really great community-based health care, and that’s something that OMC does very well. I’m just so excited to have OMC in my hometown area.”