IHA staff members are in New Hampton today, celebrating the employees of Mercy Medical Center-New Hampton. 

Founded more than 90 years ago, the New Hampton hospital is one of the state’s oldest small community hospitals, many of which were built in the 1950s and 1960s in response to the nation’s growth in the wake of World War II (and the birth of the Baby Boom generation). Mercy-New Hampton, on the other hand, was planned just before the U.S. entered World War I at the behest of the Servant Sisters of the Holy Ghost and Nicholas Schilling, a local physician.  

It took less than a year to raise the $16,000 needed to build the hospital, which opened its doors as St. Joseph Community Hospital on February 6, 1917. That name remained until 1999, when the hospital joined the Mercy Health Network in northern Iowa. 

Today, Mercy-New Hampton is a powerful part of the Chickasaw County economy, with more than 100 employees and an economic impact exceeding $5 million.  Over the last six years, the hospital has done major renovations that gave it improved spaces for the emergency department, operating rooms and outpatient services and created a brand new family practice clinic. Those improvements were critical in helping the hospital land six new physicians who will serve the community for years to come. 

At today’s celebration, IHA will share a specially made video about the hospital and the community and treat the entire hospital staff to commemorative T-shirts and ice cream sundaes.