Since then, the campus has blossomed into a clear success story.

“I’d say that we’ve been embraced by the Winona community. We’re very, very busy but very, very thankful to be here,” Lindsay Styx, regional manager at the Gundersen Winona campus, said. “We came at a time when things were pretty tough as it relates to the pandemic, but the community has welcomed us with open arms.”

Every day, Styx said, the campus welcomes close to 100 employees and nearly 400 patients, if not more. 

To fit the needs of the patients, the campus and its employees are keeping tabs on what patients seem to want and need locally. 

The campus has taken steps to fit these needs over the past three years, like extending urgent care hours so people have more of a chance to stop by before and after work and school. 

And, Styx shared, “We’re excited to keep growing in the coming years.”

In the new year, the team at the Winona campus is adding another operating room, allowing them to expand their on-site surgical options to include more procedures covering ear, nose and throat; orthopedic; podiatry; and more.

Styx said the campus is “trying to ensure that we can capture every surgical specialty that can be offered on an outreach basis.”

Additionally, the campus is working to add more clinicians to its primary care team in the new year.

There have been some challenges along the way in the past three years, though.

Styx shared some of the hurdles the campus has had to overcome: “I think just being just being new to Winona, and then of course, a new facility for our organization in the state of Minnesota. So just understanding the differences between the state of Minnesota and the state of Wisconsin, which we’re used to.”

And like all health care providers, Gundersen had to contend with the pandemic. “It’s just an evolving situation,” Styx said. “We’re just trying to stay in the know and make sure that we’re providing all of those things, providing vaccines and all of the latest and greatest treatment for all those sorts of things.

“Our staff has been navigating that essentially since we opened our campus, but I’m just so proud of them because, despite all of the challenges and all of the changes, they have just continued to provide excellent patient care and to do so with grace,” she said.

Styx did share that she has greatly enjoyed having the campus and its services so close to its patients over the past three years. 

She shared that her favorite part of having the campus in town is knowing that “care is close to home for myself and my family and my friends and neighbors.”

“We have a sense of community,” Styx added. “We are small enough to recognize people and to know faces.”

More information about Gundersen and its Winona campus can be found at www.gundersenhealth.org.

The Gundersen Winona campus is located at 1122 West Hwy. 61.