Ambitious plans call for 20 doctors to be practicing at the New Ulm Medical Center 10 years from now, according to Robert French, center business manager.

Eight doctors practice there now with a ninth due to arrive in April.

The Medical Center opened officially in November 1974 after the eight doctors pooled their resources and built a $280,000addition to an existing clinic to house their practices.

Formerly the doctors had worked in four separate locations – three downtown offices and the Center Street building which was expanded.

ONE OF THE main reasons for joining forces was to attract doctors to town. French said the clinic is hoping to have one or two more doctors here within the next six months, a total of 20 old and new doctors here by 1985.

“New Ulm has a large drawing area,”he said. “The doctors are working over-time; we need more doctors here.” Both general practitioners and specialists are being sought.

He said the clinic with its 13,000-square-foot addition will have room enough for the group until another three to five doctors arrive, at which time another expansion will be needed.

The happy news early this month was the planned return of Dr. Frank Carthey to New Ulm April 2. Dr. Carthey left town in 1972 after 19 years of practice to teach at the University of Minnesota medical school.

THE DOCTORS have been at the joint clinic four months now and French said things are going “real good.”

“We’re having our share of problems but I think it’s running very well,” he said. Problems have been “no more than anticipated, less than anticipated,” he said.

Only plan for change is the possibility of remodeling part of the unfinished lower level for expanded waiting room space. The area now is used for business office needs.

“If several doctors get a little behind, the waiting room does get a little crowded during peak hours,” French noted.

The parking lot, with 120 spaces, is completely filled during peak periods. Employees park on side streets.

ONE CHANGE under the new system has been computerization of all billing. Only one of the former separate clinics, Vogel Clinic, had this, French said.

He said computer billing yields statistics telling “where most of our work is, where we need more help.” It gives, for example, the total number of x-rays of the left ankle taken, and the number of blood tests made.

Thanks to the availability of this type of information the clinic already knows how much extra help will be needed when Dr. Carthey starts, French said.

NEW EQUIPMENT at the clinic includes a new x-ray machine and a blood chemistry machine.

The doctors all had x-ray machines before the move but some of the machines were old and couldn’t be moved, French said. The clinic now has two x-ray machines.

The blood chemistry machine measures several elements in a patient’s blood and does it much faster than could be done manually, he said. Each test now takes three minutes instead of the 20 to 30minutes it took by hand.

Hours at the clinic are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 9 to noon Saturdays. French said the system of appointments for all patients except emergencies is working out pretty we11. All doctors except those at the Vogel Clinic used appointments prior to the merger, he said.

PLANS FOR THE expanded joint clinic were first announced publicly in June 1973when the doctors sought more land for the building addition and parking.

An acre of land used as school playground was obtained from St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. The land abutted the clinic. St. Paul’s in turn bought nearly an acre of land from School District 88,land abutting St. Paul’s property, in this public-spirited exchange.

Excavation for the addition started in November 1973 and a year later, on Nov. 4,1974, the expanded New Ulm Medical Clinic opened for business.

The eight doctors currently at the clinic are Dr. William Black, Dr. Carl Fritsche, Dr. Milton Kaiser, Dr. P. J. Kitzberger, Dr. William Muesing, Dr. Lawrence Ringhofer, Dr. Ann Vogel and Dr. Howard Vogel.

Dr. C. A. Saffert rents facilities in the building but is not part of the group. Three dentists also have offices in the building.

Dr. T.R. Fritsche, and his son, Dr. T.L. Fritsche, ophthalmologists, because of their specialty, elected not to belong to the group. Their office is still downtown.

Dr. Robert Stein, formerly a doctor at the clinic, left the clinic in October and is practicing at a veteran’s hospital in South Dakota, French said.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Feb. 23, 1975