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Forty years ago, we celebrated with Dr. Paul and Marian Retzer and Dr. Don and Carolyn Lorentzen the opening of our new clinic, adjacent and physically connected to Community Memorial Hospital. At that time clinics and hospitals were usually separate, physically and otherwise. Our goal at the time was to make our medical services more efficient and more effective. The new construction fostered the development of a medical system designed for the integration of health services, allowing for more services and technology than would have been possible with the clinic and hospital physically separated, with duplication of staff and equipment.
Many changes have come about over these 40 years. Community Memorial Hospital has evolved from a basic-technology, single-community institution to the high-tech regional medical center now appropriately named West River Regional Medical Center. The Hettinger Clinic, with three doctors in 1966, has become the 16-physician, multi-site West River Health Clinics. The original medical facility employed 24 people; that number is now close to 300.
It’s more than time for a major expansion of the physical plant to accommodate all the people, services and technology needed to give the residents of our area the highest possible quality of care in the most efficient manner possible. We eagerly endorse the proposed addition and renovation planned for the medical center and look forward to the project’s completion.
--Dr. Gerry and Jan Sailer
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