On March 26, 2024, the Comprehensive Advanced Life Support (CALS) Program awarded Essentia Health Fosston with CALS Hospital designation. Essential Health Fosston joins an elite group of critical access hospitals in Minnesota to receive this recognition.

The CALS Hospital designation represents an institutional commitment to quality rural emergency medical care and recognizes the clinicians who have completed the education and the administrators who provided the infrastructure for this achievement. Essentia Health Fosston met the criteria at the highest possible level with 100% of Emergency Care Team leaders (Physicians, PA’s, NP’s) having completed the CALS Provider course and CALS Trauma Module along with many clinical staff. In addition, Essentia Health Fosston secured the recommended equipment and demonstrated their commitment to the CALS principals.

CALS is a program designed to prepare medical personnel in a team approach to anticipate, recognize, and treat life-threatening emergencies. CALS provides a comprehensive, realistic, team-based approach to handling emergency medicine in rural settings. Developed in 1996 because of collaboration among emergency medicine, family physicians, rural practitioners, academic specialists, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and paramedics, it is now a premier education program for rural healthcare providers.