The lead article in the News-Press on Friday, Feb. 4, 2008, regarding the announced plans of Heartland CEO Lowell Kruse to retire in 2010, was a fitting tribute to the man for a job well done. The article has prompted me to write and provide the history of events leading to the formation of Heartland and the subsequent retention of Mr. Kruse as CEO.

In the decades following WWII, there were two competing hospitals in St. Joseph: Missouri Methodist Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital. There was a large clinic, the Thompson-Brumm-Knepper Clinic, with more than 30 staff physicians. There were no CT scans, no MRIs, no open-heart surgery. There wasn’t even a hospital-based ambulance service. One might argue that the medical delivery system and that medicine itself were primitive compared to the high-tech medical facilities we have today.

St. Joseph Hospital was owned and operated by the Order of the Daughters of Charity, a Catholic Religious Order based in St. Louis. The more familiar name at that time was “Sisters Hospital.” The order’s desire to have a significant presence of sisters in the hospital had become increasingly difficult because of the precipitous decline in the number of candidates for the order. The physical plant was old, suffered from an inefficient layout and was in dire need of capital improvements. The religious order concluded that the best long-range plan was to build a new facility at a new site, but the order was not financially capable of undertaking such a project at that time. The decision was made to leave the St. Joseph community, but to leave the hospital in the capable hands of local community leaders if they would step forward.

A diverse group of concerned community leaders, led by the Rev. Ernie White and including members of the St. Joseph Hospital Lay Advisory Board, businessmen, clergy, doctors and lawyers, met and agreed to approach the order with a plan to assume both the assets and the debt of St. Joseph Hospital. That plan was presented to the order in St. Louis with the strong recommendation of the administrator of St. Joseph Hospital, Sister Mary Helen, and was accepted. The sisters and the order assisted and cooperated fully in the orderly transition of “Sisters Hospital” to the community not-for-profit St. Joseph Hospital.

During the transition, the new local board of the St. Joseph Hospital was fortunate to retain the services of Paul Bellendorf, who was highly recommended by the order. Mr. Bellendorf was an experienced hospital administrator who was available only on an interim basis. He provided excellent leadership and guidance through the transition. The immediate mission was to keep the hospital running smoothly and to stabilize the hospital’s position in the community. At the same time, it was critical that an able assistant to Mr. Bellendorf be found since that individual soon would become the administrator of St. Joseph Hospital. Tom Hesselmann was retained as assistant administrator upon the recommendation of Mr. Bellendorf and several months later became the administrator when Mr. Bellendorf moved to a much larger facility in Kentucky.

The board and Mr. Bellendorf (followed by Mr. Hesselmann) did a thorough study of the facility to assess the immediate and long-range needs. It became clear that in the short range, significant facility changes and improvements were required for the survival of the hospital and to stabilize the financial base in order to progress to the long-range plan. A financially strong hospital had to emerge from the transition. The immediate action taken was to add new emergency and critical care departments, refurbish and remodel where appropriate, initiate a hospital-based ambulance service and, most importantly, further develop, with professional assistance, the long-range strategic plan. The plan that emerged was the result of a detailed assessment of the direction in which both the St. Joseph community was headed economically and the best course St. Joseph Hospital could competitively follow with increasing governmental oversight and regulations of the medical delivery system.

Although the plan and assessment centered on St. Joseph Hospital, the conclusion was that neither the St. Joseph community nor the greater Northwest Missouri region could be adequately or cost-effectively serviced medically by either or both of the existing hospitals. Both hospitals were determined to be too old and too poorly laid out to be cost-effective in comparison to new construction. Based on this assessment, the strategic plan was to build a new hospital on a new site that would allow for future expansion.

In the late 1970s, the world-class architectural and engineering firm of Henningson, Durham and Richardson of Omaha, Neb., was retained to design a state-of-the-art facility for St. Joseph Hospital. This, in turn, led to the purchase of 39 acres of land at Riverside Road and Faraon Street, which would facilitate future expansion, and the eventual consolidation of the two hospitals at one site and one campus.

Since both the federal and state governments were directly involved in capital improvements and investments in education and medical facilities and equipment, a new hospital required the approval of the Missouri State Health Planning Agency. A public hearing was held at what was then the Holiday Inn, now the Days Inn. Several prominent community leaders who served on the board of Methodist Hospital voiced strong opposition to St. Joseph Hospital’s plan. They objected to the need for a second hospital and the proposed location on the East Side. Nevertheless, after further investigation and testimony, the plan was approved, financing was accomplished in New York City and the state-of-the-art facility was completed on that 39-acre site at Riverside and Faraon.

By 1982, the boards of both hospitals recognized that the hospitals must cooperate more closely to eliminate needless duplication, service the community and the region more cost-effectively and efficiently, and eliminate any counter-productive rivalry. They agreed that the first phase would be a rather informal organizational structure that allowed the hospitals to operate as a single entity. This was accomplished with the assistance of the firm of Peat Marwick. The first formal step was a new corporation, Heartland Health, that would serve as a holding company over Methodist Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital. In this phase, Heartland Health had no chief executive officer and the administrators of Methodist Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital had responsibilities within their respective corporations as well as in the holding company. The first phase worked, but conflicts and rivalries gave rise to the decision that Heartland Health required a strong visionary as CEO to implement Phase 2. The firm of Arthur Andersen was directly involved in the development and implementation of Phase 2. In 1984, Heartland Health was fortunate to retain Lowell Kruse to serve as CEO and develop the Heartland Regional Health Center.

Here we are, nearly 25 years later, with the vision complete. Thanks not only to Lowell Kruse, but also to Tom Hesselmann, Ernie White and the other members of the board of St. Joseph Hospital who had the vision to save St. Joseph Hospital and move it east to a new state-of-the-art facility on those 39 acres at Riverside and Faraon.

There was a bronze plaque on the wall at the entrance of the new St. Joseph Hospital with all of the names of these board members, but it has been misplaced, perhaps lost with all of the new construction. The names I do recall are Tom Hesselmann, St. Joseph Hospital administrator; the Rev. Ernie White, chairman; and board members Glen Zahnd, Bob Keatley, Jim Robertson, Fred Stoll, Bob Simpson, Bob Slater, the Rev. Bob Strand, Dr. Hank Willumsen, Dr. John Mothershead, Dr. Bob Stuber, Dick Optican, Fred Eder, Claude Allen, Bob Lear and Tom Watkins.