Healthcare

HISTORY

History of Fort Dodge Hospitals

1855

Fort Dodge, as a frontier settlement founded in 1853, managed to attract its first physician just two years later in 1855.

Friendship Haven

1946

420 Kenyon Road

In the early 1920s, periodic efforts to create a “senior home” in Fort Dodge drew increasing support, but no funding.

Kersten Clinic

1952

1250 5th Ave S

Dr. Kersten decided to found the clinic because he “recognized the community’s need for more doctors and specialists”. Three of his four sons were physicians and had returned to the community to practice and would join him in the new clinic to open their medical practices and help recruit additional physicians to Fort Dodge.

Oleson Foundation

1973

O. M. Oleson and his wife, Julie Haskell Oleson, began a long and admired tradition of philanthropy in Fort Dodge.