Miners Hospital before 1945 - Cuyuna Regional Medical Center

Miners Hospital before 1945
T
he story of Cuyuna Regional Medical Center’s
humble beginnings and its development into a
state-of-the-art healthcare facility is one of persistence and
determination.
The Cuyuna Range communities have worked together
for over 50 years to keep high quality healthcare local.
Tucked amid the poplars and spruce, crystal clear lakes,
and red dirt trails that surround the tiny, north central
Minnesota community of Crosby, CRMC has evolved into
a high tech medical campus known for its innovation and
creativity and grown to offer the full spectrum of health
care services from birth to death.
The unique history of the Cuyuna Range’s five hospitals
and their metamorphosis into a district hospital with broad
public support gave way toward a special future that is only
possible when the surrounding community is so fiercely
loyal and proud of their own hospital.
About the Cuyuna Range
Cuyuna, one of the three great iron ranges in Minnesota,
was discovered by Cuyler Adams in 1895. He was
surveying and discovered traces of magnetic ore. The word
“Cuyuna” was coined by Adams’ wife who combined the
first three letters of Cuyler’s name with “Una,” the name of
their dog.
The Cuyuna Mining Range was opened in 1904 and
worked for nearly 80 years. The ore was deep-seated and
most of the mines were underground. Communities
sprang up around the mines about 1910 and the peak of
employment in the mines hit around 1920. The area was
instrumental in supplying manganese for World War II. A
total of 52 mines were on the range which produced over
106 million tons of manganese-iron ore. The first ore was
shipped in 1911 and the last ore train left the mines in
1980.
The First Hospitals
Shortly after ore was discovered, five hospitals were
established in the area. The Cuyuna Range Hospital was
built in the village of Deerwood in the early 1900s, two
blocks west of the First National Bank on Archibald Road.
With the mining boom at the turn of the century, the
population on the Cuyuna Range grew rapidly which
resulted in the establishment of four more hospitals in
three years.
Crosby, Minnesota in 1912
Crosby Hosptial 1910
In 1911, Dr. Ralph Sewall formed the Cuyuna Range
Hospital Association and built a second Cuyuna Range
Hospital in Cuyuna at the corner of Tripp Avenue and
Foley Street. The third hospital on the Cuyuna Range,
the Crosby Hospital, was built in 1913 by Dr. Sewall’s
Cuyuna Range Hospital Association at First Street South
West in the village of Crosby. It had a capacity for 15 to
25 patients.
In competition for the mining business, in 1912-1913
Drs. R.J. and Elizabeth Monahan and his brother Dr. T.H.
Monahan constructed a fourth hospital, The Northern
Minnesota Hospital. It was constructed on Second Street
South West in Crosby across from Serpent Lake Park. And
in 1913, an existing house across from the Crosby City
Hall was converted into the fifth hospital.
As ore mining declined, the other hospitals consolidated
under Northern Minnesota Hospital as the mining
companies had contracted with the hospital to supply
health care to their employees. The Northern Minnesota
Hospital, which had a capacity for 19 patients, was sold
by Drs. Monahan to Dr. B.A. Smith, Sr., in 1916 and he
changed the name to Miners Hospital.
Early Healthcare on the Range
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, midwifes would go to
homesteaders on foot or by horse and buggy over bumpy
trains and ungraded roads full of hollows to help bring
new life to the Range. In the late 1890s when there was
only one doctor practicing in Cuyuna Country, the settlers
often called upon midwives to handle childbirth cases in
the home unless it was necessary for the doctor to make
the often tortuous trip by horse and buggy.
Digging into the Past, a 1999 publication of The
Cuyuna Country Heritage Preservation Society, reported
that Dr. William Reid moved to Deerwood from Canada
in 1903 and served the community until 1916 when
he was appointed postmaster. Dr. Reid was reported to
be mainly practicing for charity because he found it a
pleasure to take a drive amidst the primeval forests and
the 25 beautiful lakes that were within a five-mile radius
of Deerwood. However, he also remembered an incident
after a storm when he and his boys were riding around
Rabbit Lake and the lake was so rough it shook them off
the buggy.
The late Maryon Aulie, a registered nurse at Miners
and Cuyuna Range District hospitals for many years, was
quoted in Digging into the Past. She recalled back in 1913
reading the account of the surgery performed by Drs.
Monahan on a local hardware merchant named Haskel.
“The new procedure, clearing fragments from a fractured
collar bone and then the two broken ends of the bone
were drawn together with a screw clamp which also held
two steel plates over the point of the fracture.”
The Cuyuna Range had a population of a little more
than 3,000 in 1918 when a world-wide “Spanish
influenza” epidemic reached the area in October of that
year and hung on until December. It was estimated that
eight out of every 10 people had the flu. Statistics only
included cases reported by hospitals or physicians, the
majority of cases were treated at home and were only
reported if the victim succumbed to any of the many
complications related to the flu. By December, over 400
cases of the flu had been reported and 83 flu-related
deaths were recorded—42 of which were in Crosby, 19 in
Ironton, and 10 in Cuyuna.
Aulie also remembered a young nurse’s account of going
to work for Dr. Smith and Dr. Sylvester Shannon in the
1920s, right after high school. “I had what you might
call on-the-job training and got broken into working
right away. By the second day, they showed me how to
mix a hypo with the syringe and the powder and draw
up the solution, all the sterile methods used. We worked
to take care of five or six patients, gave baths, and helped
in the operating room. They did tonsillectomies and
appendectomies and gall bladders in those days. Dr.
Shannon gave the anesthesia and Dr. Smith did the
tonsillectomies.”
Dr. John Hawkinson was also recalled by Aulie of sitting
in an all-night vigil at the home of a mother lying on her
bed struggling to breathe in her fight with pneumonia. The
woman’s son had raced down the block to the Hawkinson
home and rapped on the door yelling, “My mother can’t
breathe!” Dr. Hawkinson dropped a knife in the midst
of carving a holiday roast, grabbed his bag and ran back
with the boy to his home. He stayed all night, ministering
medically and compassionately to the lady until the fever
of her pneumonia broke and she was able to breathe
more easily. Later in the week, the husband walked to
the hospital office and asked Dr. Hawkinson how much
he owed him. “Don’t worry about it,” the kindly doctor
answered, “you haven’t been working, but the mining
company insurance will still take care of it.”
Miners Hospital
Miners Hospital met only the basic needs of a hospital.
Aulie also remembered in the late 1940s at Miners
Hospital when she was moving huge oxygen cylinders
by cart from the back entryway to the patients’ rooms,
even lugging some cylinders up a flight of stairs before the
community provided an elevator in the spring of 1949.
She recalled a squeaky dumb waiter carrying trays from
the basement kitchen to the first and second floors, the
crying of newborns lined up on the shelf in the little fourby-six nursery on the second floor, giggles and laughter
from the new moms in the OB ward across the hall who
truly bonded with one another during their usual 10-day
postpartum stay, the clip-clop of the coif machine echoing
from the nuns’ quarters on the third floor as they pedaled
the pleats into those white coifs that were such a beautiful
part of their habits, the sound of the janitor teasing the
children in the two cribs in the pediatric unit on the first
floor, to the silence of the call lights outside the rooms.
In 1946, Dr. Baxter A. Smith transferred administration
of Miners Hospital, which he had owned and operated for
30 years, to the Benedictine Sisters Benevolent Association
of Duluth.
Registered Nurse Mary Lou Houle began working at
Miners Hospital in January 1955 as a nurses’ aide and
continued working until 2010 when she retired. She
Dr. Clark M. Marchall and baby, 1961
recalled in Digging into the Past, that there were no
conveniences that are now taken for granted. There were
no disposable, one-time use supplies. Injection needles
were sharpened, washed and rinsed in ether before they
were sterilized with the glass syringes. Surgical gowns, caps
and masks were all cloth. Even the surgical gloves were
washed, checked for holes and re-sterilized. The rooms
were very small with no extra space. Meals were served on
trays placed on the patient’s lap in bed and stored under
the bed.
Although great care was being provided at Miners
Hospital, the building’s facilities were aged and cramped.
The Minnesota Department of Health in 1956 notified
the hospital’s administration that the building was
hazardous and needed to be renovated or closed. Leniency
was granted with permission to operate the hospital for a
five-year period, during which some planning for a new
structure could begin.
Medical Doctors
In 1913, Dr. Smith came to the Cuyuna Range from
Canada to practice medicine. He continued his medical
practice on the Range for 34 years, retiring in 1947. In
1914, Dr. E.G. Pengilly and Dr. R.E. Spinks joined Dr.
Smith’s staff and practiced in Riverton. In 1915, Dr. R.E.
Bechtel of Chicago joined Dr. Smith’s staff.
Dr. B.A. Smith, Jr., in a 1991 Crosby-Ironton Courier,
recalled his father’s practice. “Dr. B.A. Smith, Sr., covered
it all 77 years ago—babies, broken bones, appendicitis,
carcinomas—everything. If you couldn’t pay in cash,
chickens were fine! Babies cost $9 to have and his black bag
in 1913 held the bare rudiments of his trade—bandages,
aspirin, scalpel, sutures, vomiting syrup, tongue blades, and
the dreaded black and yellow quarantine notices. It wasn’t
until 1941 that he was able to offer more than compassion
to a patient dying of pneumonia. He then gave them a
new antibiotic drug, a sulfonamide, and they miraculously
recovered. Polio was still crippling young and old, not
much could be done for heart attacks and pneumonia was
called the old man’s friend because an older person would
just sleep away with it if he didn’t have the zip to fight it.”
Dr. Clark M. Marshall, a general practitioner and
surgeon, had his first glimpse of the operating room at
the old Miners Hospital that was to be his new work
place in 1949. He continued to practice in Crosby until
his retirement in 1987. Dr. Marshall was joined at the
Cuyuna Clinic by Dr. Roger Kelley in 1953. Dr. Carl
Winquist was also on the staff of Miners Hospital; he
passed away in April 1958.
In a Crosby-Ironton Courier article about Dr. Marshall’s
retirement, he was quoted, “I came here when I was
29 years old. I had several offers in the cities but none
with which I could support my family. Dr. Nixon told
me Crosby had industrial connections with the mining
companies that gave the clinic a base of support.” He
added that the mining companies contracted with the
clinic for a monthly cost of 50 to 75 cents a miner for their
care. A family received full medical care for $3 a month.
Also in the article, Dr. Marshall fondly remembered his
work with the miners. “When the whistle blew that meant
there’d been an accident at the mine and the ambulance
had to go out to Inland Steel. They always wanted a
doctor when they brought a man up. I had on my white
jacket,” Dr. Marshall remembered, “and everyone had red
dust. But I decided to go down anyway and rode the skip
to the bottom.” Rumbling down the tracks, the tram soon
appeared. They took the injured man off the train and
Early Doctors
Dr. Roger E. Kelley
Dr. Clark M. Marshall
Dr. James B. Nixon
Ralph Sewall (1911)
R.J. and Elizabeth Monahan (1912)
T.H. Monahan (1912)
Baxter A. Smith (1913-1949)
E.G. Pengilly (1914)
R.E. Spinks (1914)
R.E. Bechtel (1915)
Sylvester Shannon (1918)
Baxter A. Smith, Jr. (1942)
James Nixon (1946-1984)
Carl Winquist (1947-1958)
Clark M. Marshall (1949-1988)
Roger Kelley (1953-1988)
Emery “Bud” Ulrich (1961)
D.S. Berkman (1966-1971)
Donald Larson (1969-1980)
Walter Sosey (1970-1973)
Baxter Smith (1973-1983)
Dominador Soriano (1974-1994)
J.A. Narrows
R.D. Nichols
Benjamin A. Fine
laid him down. “All you could see besides red ore was the
whites of his eyes!” “Who is it?” Dr. Marshall asked. “You,
know, Doc! It’s me! Matt!” Luckily Matt wasn’t hurt too
badly. Although Dr. Marshall never descended a mine
shaft again, he remembers that day vividly. “I don’t think
people remember how everything in this town used to be
red—the pickups, the cars, even the hospital and clinic.
Our biggest problem at the clinic used to be how to get the
red out of everything.”
Two physician clinics were in operation, the Crosby Clinic
and the Cuyuna Range Clinic. Doctors Marshall, Kelley,
and James B. Nixon were called founders of the present
hospital because when the mines closed down and people
left the area they stayed and continued their practices.
The Administrators
Sister Adeline Zoller of the Benedictine Sisters
Benevolent Association of Duluth was the first
administrator of Miners Hospital, serving from 1946 to
1953. The sisters saw to all of the administrative functions
of the hospital as well as filling positions as trained nurses
and aides. Next to serve as administrator were Sister
Vivian and then Sister Theofreda, who assisted with the
plans for the progression to the new hospital through
September 1962. Sister Regina was administrator from
1962 until May 1964. Then, Sister Adeline returned to the
community as administrator and served until 1973.
Miners Hosptial staff, 1950
Edward Dahlberg was the first lay administrator of
the hospital, serving from 1973 to 1980. Thomas F.
Reek joined the staff of CRMC in 1974 as assistant
administrator, transitioned to CEO in 1980 and continued
serving CRMC for 38 years until his retirement in 2012.
Saving the Community’s Hospital
In 1958 the area iron mines were running dry, Miners
Hospital needed many upgrades, and prospects for
building a new hospital looked grim. Even though the
community’s request for a federal grant to build a new
hospital was denied three times, the citizens never gave up.
Many miners were transferred to jobs in Michigan,
Wisconsin, and Liberia, Africa; but the remaining
community came together to save its hospital and that
spring a corporation was formed with the goal of finding a
way to retain high quality, affordable healthcare for Range
residents.
The Cuyuna Range Lions initiated the first community
meeting in January 1957 to discuss the hospital situation
at a gathering for 60 residents who responded to their
plea. At a second meeting in March a steering committee
was formed and in May the Cuyuna Range Hospital,
Inc., was organized with 15 directors. These included:
Mrs. Lloyd Anderson, Earl W. Bedard, LeRoy Brosius
(later replaced by E.W. Hallett), Kenneth Burns, Arvilla
Hansen, Sentry Hillerud, R.O. Lee, Mrs. Clark Marshall,
Miners Hospital
H.A. McLaughlin, Francis Murphy, Dr. James Nixon,
Robert Odonovich, Fr. Joseph A. Cashen, the Rev. William
Ofelt (replaced by the Rev. R.D. Frederickson in a clergy
rotation plan), E.W. Skone and Dr. E.E. Ulrich.
One of the directors, Bedard, has continued serving the
Crosby hospital since that time. He recalled attending a
meeting about keeping a hospital in Crosby with business
owners and politicians who formed CRH Inc. that later
became the Cuyuna Range Hospital District. “We fought
so hard to get a hospital here,” Bedard said. “It was very
important to the community and it was successful. The
CRH was formed in 1961. We set up a hospital board and
I’ve been on it ever since.”
The corporation held 53 meetings between May 1957
and November 1962 when the district plan was adopted—
only one testimonial to the fact that all involved were
dedicated, hard-working members. The first highlight was
the acquisition of 4.1 acres of land donated by George H.
Crosby, village founder, for the hospital site. A total of 11
architectural firms were interviewed one or more times and
the firm of Fasth, Hillstrom & Horty of Minneapolis were
employed in 1958.
Money Miners
In 1958, the corporation began sponsoring various
community fund drives in order to raise $200,000 for the
hospital. The campaign was spearheaded by the Money
Miners, with H.V. (Pat) Johnson, chairman, collecting
pledges and contributions. The community responded
overwhelmingly and exceeded the goal by $35,000. The
newly formed Cuyuna Range Auxiliary also became
involved and through talent shows, bake sales, and rag
drives over six years raised another $26,000. Four mining
administration, impressed by the corporation’s enthusiasm
and level of local support, provided a $350,000 HillBurton grant. An additional four acres at the edge of
Crosby were purchased by the board. As donations
continued to be made, construction of the hospital and
nearby clinic began.
Cuyuna Range Hospital
Bids on construction were opened in September 1962
and John Koenig of Aitkin was selected as the general
contractor. Groundbreaking was held on October 14,
1962, and construction was completed on May 8, 1964.
The total cost of construction was $800,000.
Earl W. Bedard
companies provided another $33,000 in additional
monies, and then pledged an additional $5,000 each.
Truly a community effort!
These years were also spent by the corporation pursuing
federal Hill-Burton funds. In 1962, the government
In November 1962, the Cuyuna Range Hospital
District was formed so a bond referendum could be
held. The corporation adopted a plan through which
17 Range townships would maintain local control of the
new hospital through a board of directors made up of
one representative from each district, plus one at-large
member. This was the largest hospital district in the state
of Minnesota at the time, covering 400 square miles and
encompassing 17 townships and villages. A $450,000
bond issue passed by a vote of 1,724 to 178—again
proof of a community dedicated and committed to good
health care. Ken Burns, district board chairman, and his
members were commended for their efforts. The 18 board
members were elected from their respective districts to
four-year terms with one member at large to ensure that
the control of area health care remained in the hospital
district—a big factor in gaining support and building
success.
In 1963, the board approved a plan for a new clinic. It
was to be staffed by five or more physicians and never to be
used for anything else.
On June 7, 1964, Cuyuna Range District Hospital &
Home and its adjacent physicians’ clinic were dedicated.
An estimated 2,200 people gathered to tour the new
facility. Ten patients were transferred from the old Miners
Hospital to the new hospital on a bright sunny day.
Some of the sickest patients were moved in a make-shift
ambulance (a hand-me-down from Koop’s Mortuary) and
others were loaded into wheelchairs and pushed down six
blocks of sidewalk to their new abode by staff members.
Continued Growth
Throughout the following years, the hospital’s growth
has been robust. An Ambulance service was established
in 1965 with a fully-equipped Suburban ambulance. In
1970, a 50-bed long-term care facility was opened and
more than 30 acres were purchased from the E.R. Burns
estate. Within a decade, the care facility needed to be
expanded and in 1981 groundbreaking was held for a
$560,000 addition.
In 1978, the hospital entered into a unique contract with
Crow Wing County assuming management responsibility
for the operation of Cedarbook Manor, a 77-bed nursing
home located south of Deerwood. The home was formerly
known as the Deerwood T.B. Sanatorium. When the State
Department of Health condemned Cedarbrook Manor,
another building project for the Cuyuna Range District
Hospital began and culminated in 1982. Again, a bond
was issued, this time for $5.6 million, and resulted in 80
additional nursing home beds, a four-bed special care unit
and extensive renovation in the hospital.
In 1982, Range-area residents voted a bond issue that
granted the medical center $5.6 million for additions
and expansion. The building program was celebrated at
an open house in 1983. That same year, the Ambulance
service was updated from basic to advanced life support,
the first in the area. Home care services were added in
1984.
Also in the 1980s, the hospital capitalized on the area’s
growth of summer cabin residents and vacationers from
the Twin Cities. The hospital offered the type of highquality health care normally found only in urban areas.
The organization began using the area’s plentiful lakes and
pine forests and the hospital’s willingness to invest in new
equipment as tools to attract new doctors. Partnerships
with regional hospitals were formed to purchase the latest
diagnostic equipment including a mobile MRI scanner.
Partnerships were also developed so physicians could
practice part-time in the Aitkin hospital and at a clinic
in Longville. The hospital also worked closely with the
Medical School at the University of Minnesota-Duluth
which offers extensive training in rural medicine.
Cuyuna Regional Medical Center
Cuyuna Range District Hospital & Home was renamed
Cuyuna Regional Medical Center in 1990. As healthcare
became more complex, more areas needed to be available
to provide for those services. Extensive remodeling of
patient rooms, hallways, physical therapy and surgical
suites took place in 1992 and in 1994 a new FAAapproved heliport was installed and hospice services begun.
CRMC became a partner of the former Longville Lakes
Clinic in 1992 and since then has been a part of a unique
collaboration with community partners that bring a high
level of healthcare to the Longville region. The clinic was
a partnership of the Longville Community Care Center,
Central Lakes Medical Clinic and CRMC. In November
of 2011, CRMC integrated with Central Lakes Medical
Clinic and the clinic’s name was changed to CRMC
Longville.
A HomeHealth Partnership was formed by CRMC and
Riverwood Health Care Center in Aitkin in 1995. A new
Care Center entrance, dining room, and dementia unit was
built in 1997. Hallett Cottages senior housing for memory
loss patients opened the summer of 1998.
Ground was broken in the summer of 1999 to add a
new a 20,000-square-feet medical clinic that included a
radiology center, laboratory, emergency room, urgent care
center, breast health center and a cardiopulmonary rehab
center.
A multi-year, 87,000 square-feet expansion of the
medical campus was completed in 2002 and a new
entrance to the emergency department was opened. Other
components of the project included additional operating
rooms in the state-of-the-art surgery center, expanded
emergency services, radiology, laboratory and rehabilitation
departments. Cuyuna Lakes Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy,
was also added. Along with the expanded departments,
new services such as full-time cardiology care were added
in partnership with Minneapolis Heart Institute.
In 2003, CRMC formed the Minnesota Institute for
Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIMIS). The formation of
MIMIS demonstrated the long-standing commitment of
CRMC and its surgeons to minimally invasive surgery.
Today, over 60 surgical professionals perform a variety of
both inpatient and outpatient procedures.
Ranked along with the Mayo Clinic and University of
Minnesota as a site for major surgery innovation, CRMC
was the first hospital to offer minimally invasive surgery.
MIMIS is the only fellowship program in the United States
and Canada to achieve accreditation in three specialties:
minimally invasive surgery, bariatric surgery, and flexible
endosurgery. The organization offers numerous teaching
and other fellowship programs and has attracted specialists
who could practice anywhere in the world.
The continued growth at CRMC and the expected
growth in the population prompted the need for
additional patient rooms. This demanded resulted
in the decision to build an all new inpatient hospital.
“Our focus has always been to serve the people of this
region,” said CRMC Board Chair Roger Twigg. “As the
area has grown and health care needs have changed, we
have worked together—board, physicians, and staff—to
proactively respond to those needs.”
Groundbreaking was held in October 2005 for a
new 70,000-square-feet addition and renovation of
CRMC. This project created an all new inpatient unit
with private rooms, comfortable areas for families and
visitors, ambulatory services areas, expanded areas for
ICU and birthing, a new main entrance, MRI/Radiology,
and an expanded on-site retail pharmacy. Technology
and comfort were melded together to provide patients
with the best possible care. The $16 million project was
completed in October 2008 when the front entrance,
Cornerstone Café, and an outdoor landscaped courtyard
were opened.
CRMC provided an overall new look to hospital care
and more likely resembled an upscale hotel. As patients
and visitors entered the new hospital, it was quickly
apparent CRMC was not a traditional hospital. They
Expansion groundbreaking
were welcomed by the warmth of a stone fireplace under
natural light with a comfortable lounge that felt more like
a home than a hospital.
“Our goal was not just to build a new building,” said
Tom Reek, who was CEO at the time. “We wanted to
create an environment that focused on patients, their
families, and the staff who provide their care. At CRMC,
we are working to create a healing environment for
patients and to expand upon their model of providing
care that is centered on patients and their families.”
Also in 2008 just steps away from CRMC, the 180,000square-feet Heartwood Senior Living Community opened.
both CRMC and its Care Center, providing a complete
continuum of services.
As the Medical Center has grown, it has been able to
attract dedicated, quality physicians and staff who, along
with the required up-to-date technology, has developed
into a regional resource for advanced diagnostic and
therapeutic healthcare services. The Medical Center’s
unique brand of personalized care is characterized by a
record of sustained strength and steady growth reflected by
an ever-increasing range of services offered.
CRMC joined forces with Presbyterian Homes & Services
to create Heartwood, which has the look and feel of a
gracious, upscale resort while proving leading-edge yet
highly compassionate care and services seniors need to
thrive. The almost $23 million community serves 150
seniors in 98 senior living, assisted living, and memory
care apartment homes. Residents receive access into
In 2010 the communities of Aitkin and Crosby launched
the Cuyuna Riverwood Breast Health Alliance to provide
breast cancer patients a higher level of treatment and care
right at home. CRMC and Riverwood Healthcare Center
brought together their talents and resources to offer stateof-the-art digital mammography to the region. The alliance
also includes partnerships with the Virginia Piper Cancer
Institute in Minneapolis, Regional Diagnostic Radiology in
Sartell, and Minnesota Oncology in St. Paul.
That same year the two organizations formed the
Minnesota Center for Orthopaedics to offer the best
orthopaedic care possible in Aitkin, Crosby and the
region. The partnership shares surgeons and resources to
offer a high level of orthopaedic care comparable to what
patients can access in large metropolitan areas. CRMC’s
other partnerships include Adult & Pediatric Urology and
Crosby Eye Clinic.
The Central Lakes Medical Clinic integrated with
CRMC in 2011. In the spring of 2013, CRMC partnered
with Minneapolis Heart Institute to break ground for a
new medical office building in Baxter. The 22,000-squarefeet clinic opened in December 2013 and is shared
by CRMC and Minneapolis Heart Institute. CRMC
services include family medicine, OB/GYN, podiatry,
orthopaedics, surgery, urology, a laboratory, and radiology.
Additional medical specialties will also be offered at the
Baxter Clinic in the future.
Cuyuna Regional Medical Center in Crosby has been
named one of Minnesota’s most successful rural hospital
innovators thanks to innovative thinking and creative
partnerships.
In March 2014, a new 13,000-square-feet Business
Support Services building was opened across the highway
from the main hospital to house about 70 of the Business
and Health Information Management department
employees. It was built to open space in the hospital for a
new, state-of-the-art surgery center to be opened in 2015.
Today, CRMC is known as a proactive, high tech,
patient-centered medical community. Through all of its
progression and growth, CRMC always retained its rural
community spirit of love and compassion. Over 900
doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals, and support staff
look forward to serving the region for years to come.
CRMC’s mission was developed by a group of employees
to emulate the organization’s conviction about how people
should be treated. It reads: Accommodating you with care
and compassion by dedicating ourselves to you every day.
The vision is: Create an environment where great doctors
and superb medical professionals can practice the caliber
of medicine for which they studied. Never stop looking for
ways to improve. Can-Do Spirit values are: Collaboration,
Ambassador, iNnovation, Dedication, and Opportunities
for Excellence in the Moment.
Recognition
2012
2014
2013
Women’s Choice Award
®
America’s 100 Best Hospitals
For Patient Experience
All of this is accomplished daily by the dedicated health
care professionals and support staff who work together to
provide a positive, proactive, and patient family-centered
medical campus. CRMC offers a progressive approach to
rural health care. The positive, “can-do” philosophy of the
employees has been instrumental in the growth of Cuyuna
Range’s healthcare throughout the years.
M
Compassionate and loving care by doctors, nurses, and
all other health care personnel is shown daily at CRMC to
provide the best service possible to area residents. For more
than a century, Crosby has always cared about those who
live in what is now called Cuyuna Lakes.
Comparison of growth in
healthcare on the Cuyuna Range
1964
2014
Cuyuna Range District Hospital & Home
Cuyuna Regional Medical Center
3 doctors
20 employees
33 doctors plus physician assistants and nurse practitioners
946 employees
2,200 patients
255 births
4,040 surgeries
62,622 outpatient visits
9,316 emergency department visits
$45 million salaries
$98 million net revenue
Partnerships
HOME H EALTH
PA R T N E R S H I P
A Project Partnership service of the Aitkin and Cuyuna Medical Communities.
Crosby
Eyelinic
C
Branded Service Lines
Sources:
Crosby-Ironton Courier
Digging into the Past, a 1999 publication of The Cuyuna Country Heritage Preservation Society
Cuyuna Iron Range Heritage Network, Crosby
Soo Line Depot Museum, Crosby
Minnesota Historical Society
Special Thanks:
Earl W. Bedard
Mary Lou Houle
Roger Twigg