The History of Innovis Health
We’ve come a long way
In 1926, Dakota Clinic was founded through a physician partnership consisting of only 10 employees. The main forerunners of this endeavor included Drs. Kent Darrow, Frank Darrow, Paul Burton, William Long and Ralph Weible. The original clinic building was housed at 702 1st Avenue South, just northwest of Island Park in downtown Fargo. The clinic immediately began providing healthcare services to the Fargo area in a manner that the physicians found to be the best: focusing on patient-centered care.
With an increasing number of families flocking to the area, the clinic needed room to grow and so construction began at 17th Avenue and South University Drive. The South University clinic opened its doors on October 7, 1957. The building would undergo many more expansions throughout the 1960s with the largest construction venture involving a partnership with the Dakota Medical Foundation to create a new hospital known as Dakota Hospital. This new, 80-bed hospital took approximately 18 months to complete and opened its doors on November 1, 1963.
The need for outreach clinics developed in 1980 and over the next 20 years, 21 clinics would come to life. In 1998, the concept of Innovis Health was formed through the efforts of BCBS of MN and the physicians of Dakota Clinic. The Innovis Health campus opened its doors in November 2000 joining together the hospital and 21 clinics with a shared mission and vision: to make a healthy difference in people’s lives by providing patient-centered healthcare in the spirit of physician-led partnership and innovation. The name “Innovis” is formed from the words Innovation and Vision.
In January 2007, Innovis Health and Dakota Clinic began the discussion of merging through Essentia Health. Essentia Health, an affiliation of the Benedictine Health System (BHS) and St. Mary’s/Duluth Clinic Health System (SMDC), is a multi-state, not-for-profit health care system headquartered in Minnesota that strives to support the growth and success of health care in communities through innovative partnerships.
By November, a letter of intent was signed and the official merger took place on January 1, 2008. The two organizations formerly known as Dakota Clinic and Innovis Health joined together under one name to become known as Innovis Health, LLC. The logo encompasses both our past and our future: it reflects the swash from Essentia Health and the blue from Dakota Clinic.
Today, Innovis Health is comprised of an 86-bed hospital with an adjoining clinic and 20 divisional clinics. A staff of physicians, nurses, therapists and technicians work as a team to create a dimension of care that centers on the patient – as a whole person – the physical, emotional and spiritual needs necessary for healing and wellness. Our guiding principles of Compassion, Hospitality, Stewardship and Safety lead us to provide an environment of care that is filled with dignity and respect for our patients. It is through these efforts that we will continue our tradition of caring to the communities of eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.