Mercy Network

History of Mercy Health Network – North Iowa

As the premier rural health care delivery network in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota, Mercy Health Network - North Iowa spans 14 counties across northern Iowa and consists of a secondary referral medical center (Mercy Medical Center - North Iowa), a network of nine rural primary care hospitals, Mercy Clinics (a primary care and specialty physician network), a home health agency, a hospice, a senior services agency, a regional referral laboratory, regional rehabilitation and diagnostic technology services, pharmacies, an emergency services network and a variety of other health care services.

Primary Care Hospitals

Mercy Health Network - North Iowa spans 14 counties in northern Iowa and includes nine rural hospitals that provide primary care and emergency services. Mercy has been providing management services for rural hospitals since 1978, when Ellsworth Municipal Hospital joined Mercy Health Network - North Iowa.

These community hospitals offer quality health care and yet are still able to take advantage of all the resources of a major referral center such as Mercy Medical Center - North Iowa. These hospitals include:

Today, Mercy provides management support for one Trinity hospital, Mercy Medical Center - New Hampton, and has a contract affiliation with one public hospital, Regional Health Services of Howard County. The remaining seven public hospitals have physician/hospital organization (PHO) relationships with Mercy Medical Center - North Iowa.

Mercy Clinics

An integral part of the Mercy Health Network - North Iowa is Mercy Clinics. General Medical Associates (Mercy Family Clinic - Clear Lake) was the first clinic to join Mercy Health Network - North Iowa in 1987. Over the years, Mercy Clinics has grown to 41 clinics in 31 North Iowa communities.

In addition to family practitioners, Mercy Clinics includes ten specialty clinics with physicians specializing in internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, dermatology, occupational health, women’s health, and family practice residency. The latest clinic to join Mercy Health Network - North Iowa was Mercy Pediatric and Adolescent Clinic - Clear Lake in 2001.

Mercy Clinics have more than 130 physicians and mid-level providers (nurse practitioners and physician assistants) including: family practitioners, pediatricians, general surgeons, internists, optometrists, occupational medicine physicians, and specialists.

The Mercy Clinics management services relieve the administrative burdens for affiliated physicians by providing a full-time staff of professionals to support their practices. Management services provided include:

  • Finance
  • Reimbursement/Collections
  • Operations
  • Human Resources
  • Information Systems
  • Purchasing
  • Government Regulations
  • Recruitment
  • Physician Relations
  • Quality Improvement
  • Customer Service