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For Immediate Release

For more information, contact:
Debra Brase, Owatonna Hospital, 507-444-6070

Owatonna Hospital's Community Benefit more than $4 Million in 2006: From charity care to wellness programs, Owatonna Hospital, Allina are valuable community partners

OWATONNA, Minn. 07/30/2007--

Statement by Debra Brase, Owatonna Hospital marketing and communications manager, on how Owatonna Hospital gives back to the community through Community Benefits.

As your not-for-profit hospital, Owatonna Hospital is not satisfied to simply provide care for patients 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Our mission is to also reach beyond the bedside providing community outreach services by our team of dedicated employees to improve the health status of our community.

What is Community Benefit?

Community outreach services are called Community Benefits and they’re designed to prevent illnesses and accidents, and improve health and well being. They’re services that our organization is committed to providing to our community above and beyond the medical care you expect and deserve from your local hospital.

Some of our Community Benefits include: - Charity care, unpaid costs of public programs (Medicaid)
- Health fairs, such as Women’s Health Day and the Children’s Safety Fair
- Heart Safe Communities project, placing 27 AEDs in the Owatonna and offering CPR/AED training
- Exercise classes, such as Senior Weight Training and Senior Chair Aerobics
- Community health education, such as our childbirth education classes, childhood obesity presentations
- Health professional education for nurses (collaboration with Riverland Community College and South Central College)
- 2nd Grade Tours with elementary schools
- Charitable/in-kind donations to local nonprofits and event sponsorships, such as On the Move Walk Across America and Relay for Life
- On-call certified athletic trainers TC and Jen Lorenzo at high school and Southern Minnesota Express Hockey sporting events
- Mobile Meals to deliver hot meals to the homebound
- Staff time for community organization drives, such as Relay for Life, United Way, and blood drives
- Coalition building with other community groups, such as Rotary, National Night Out, Summer Reading program with the Owatonna Public Library, CAER, CERT - Meeting space for nonprofit organizations

Starting in 2005, Owatonna Hospital began a concerted effort to collaborate with a diversified group of community-based organizations to help drive our community benefit work by forming a Community Advisory Committee. Members from these organizations help us identify and plan programs that will help improve the health of our community.

How much have we given back to the community in 2006?

Community Benefits bring little or no payment to the hospital, but are sustained because they’re important to residents of Owatonna and the surrounding areas we serve. During 2006, Owatonna Hospital contributed more than $4.3 million in community benefits in Steele County.

This total includes charity care, which is caring for patients unable to pay. That means Owatonna Hospital provides care regardless of patients’ ability to pay, with or without health insurance, and whether or not government-sponsored Medicare and Medicaid programs cover the full cost of services. In addition, Owatonna provided $879,000 to cover unpaid medical care, and we absorbed $1.1 million worth of bad debt, which is made up largely of medical bills that are unpaid.

Like all health care providers, Owatonna Hospital, which is part of Allina Hospitals & Clinics, faces financial challenges related to caring for the growing population of uninsured patients. We continue to invest in programs to reduce the number of uninsured while elevating the health of everyone in the communities we serve.

What guidelines do we use to track Community Benefit?

While Owatonna Hospital has contributed more than $4 million back to our community, Allina Hospitals & Clinics has contributed more than $396 million in community contributions, which is approximately 17 percent of Allina’s $2.3 billion operating expense.Allina and Owatonna Hospital also use guidelines established by two leading national organizations to track community benefit contributions: Catholic Health Association (CHA) and VHA.

Both at the Allina and local levels, we’re proud of the community benefit services we provide and continue strive to partner with our communities to improve the health and wellness of our community residents while providing care to all who need it.

Related Links

Owatonna Hospital Community Benefit

Allina Hospitals & Clinics Community Benefit