OMC REGIONAL FOUNDATION

Healthcare should not be a luxury. Healthcare is a basic need. At Olmsted Medical Center, we believe that good health starts with great care. Healthcare services can help people get well and stay well. Whether it is services designed to teach people about leading a healthy lifestyle, the annual physical, or treatment of a medical condition, we believe in investing in the health of people in our region. We know that not everyone has 100% insurance coverage. That's why OMC Regional Foundation has established a program to help people with their medical bills when, through no fault of their own, they need a helping hand. Our program is not a hand-out for poor planners. And it goes beyond what nonprofit hospitals have to do to provide medical care to the uninsured. We are using philanthropic gifts to help people help themselves to healthier lives. We are helping prospective parents with lower incomes get prenatal education to prepare for a healthy baby. We are helping people with catastrophic illness, who are underinsured and would otherwise delay their treatment, reclaim their health. We are helping seniors on limited fixed incomes regain their mobility through knee or hip surgeries, so they can continue to live independently in their homes after recovery. We also are helping people who have just lost their jobs, but still have "too high an income" to qualify for services, to obtain critical diagnostic testing when delaying the test is not acceptable. We are also helping our patients and their families to make healthier lifestyle choices through providing health newsletters, smoking cessation support, nutrition and diabetes education, and much more. We are helping the community prepare themselves, through free community lectures, on a variety of difficult topics, such as end-of-life issues, long-term care, emergency preparedness, and our choices in the era of healthcare reform.

OMC has a well-known reputation for caring and quality within its primary care and more than 20 specialty care areas. At 16 patient care locations in southeastern Minnesota, OMC's more than 140 clinicians provide healthcare services and education to residents located in 10 communities, including Byron, Chatfield, Pine Island, Preston, Plainview, St. Charles, Stewartville, Spring Valley, and Wanamingo, in addition to Rochester, MN. OMC delivers more than 1,000 babies per year in the BirthCenter in OMC Hospital, performs more than 3,500 surgical procedures, and records more than 280,000 patients visits annually. OMC serves more than 45,000 patient households throughout southeastern Minnesota annually. Established by Dr. Hal Wente, family physician, in 1949, OMC continues to celebrate 60 years of dedicated service to southeastern Minnesota.