Though one of Council Bluffs’ hospitals has been known by a number of names over the past 45 years, two “constants” have always been there — the inclusion of “Mercy Hospital” as part of the name and the service of Marie Knedler.
But one of those constants is about to change. Knedler is retiring in February.
After 45 years of service to Mercy Hospital, her community, state and the hospital’s patients, physicians and staff, Marie Knedler will be moving on to the next stage of her life.
She began her career as an ICU nurse at Mercy Council Bluffs and has served as president of that same hospital for the past 24 years. She also currently serves as an executive sponsor of the cardiovascular service line. In conjunction with her leadership role at Mercy Hospital, Marie has held several other leadership positions for the CHI Health network.
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Knedler grew up on a farm near her hometown of Alton, Iowa, and worked part-time as a nursing assistant at Orange City Municipal Hospital. Looking back to those high school days, Knedler said she knew then that nursing was the career she wanted; and she’s never regretted that decision.
The move to Council Bluffs in 1972 after graduating from St. Joseph Mercy School of Nursing in Sioux City was, she admits, a combination of desperation and determination.
Knedler said that she and five other student nurses had agreed while in school that they would remain together after graduation. The job market was tight, and the six had had no luck finding jobs in Sioux City or Minneapolis when they learned there were openings on the nursing staff at Mercy Hospital here.
The six came to Council Bluffs on a Saturday for interviews with two of the Sisters of Mercy, Sister Miguel and Sister Lucina. All were offered positions at the hospital.
“I was told later there were only two openings when we applied,” Knedler said. “We obviously convinced them that our determination to remain together was sincere.”
From her early days as a Mercy floor nurse, Knedler eventually moved to critical care nursing before being named manager of critical care. She rose through the ranks to become vice president for nursing before being named administrator of the Mercy Council Bluffs campus in 1999.
Along the way she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from the Creighton University School of Nursing in Omaha and an MBA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Though she never set out to become a high-profile leader, Knedler credits Mercy mentors, especially Sister Lucina, the hospital’s former director of nursing, as recognizing her potential and encouraging her to take on leadership positions and responsibilities.
Her responsibilities grew as she served as administrator of Mercy Hospital beginning in 1999. Beginning in 2009, Knedler served as president of Mercy Hospital here as well as Bergan-Mercy in Omaha, a position she held through 2015.
The presidency of Creighton University Hospital was added to her responsibilities at Mercy and Bergan-Mercy in 2016 and 2017. Beginning in 2017 and continuing through this year, she has served as president of Mercy Hospital and as interim president of Nebraska Heart Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Her commitments outside Mercy Hospital, as well as with the Alegent Health System and now with the CHI Health System, in the community have been equally numerous and leadership oriented.
In 2005, Knedler served as chairman of the Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. She has also served as board chairman of the Council Bluffs Community Health Center, now the All-Care Health Center.
Knedler was a founding board member of the Pottawattamie County Community Foundation and served with a mental health and substance abuse group in the 1990s that worked to help address those issues. She was active in Live Well Council Bluffs that eventually became Keep Council Bluffs Beautiful and is now part of the 712 Initiave.
Knedler is currently working with the Bridges Out of Poverty program, helping bring that program — aimed at addressing, through education, the issues that contribute to poverty — to Council Bluffs.
Looking back over her four and a half decades with Mercy Hospital Knedler was asked what she considered the hospital’s greatest accomplishments. She pointed proudly to a time beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the system was convinced to invest heavily in Council Bluffs.
“We poured millions into Council Bluffs,” she said, “probably close to $90 million in all.”
In addition to substantial improvement at Mercy Hospital, the CHI Health System completed clinic facilities on West Broadway and is now in the process of building a new clinic facility on Valley View Drive that is slated to open in 2019.
Those four-plus decades have also seen tremendous changes in the delivery of health care. It was not that long ago, she said, that a woman having a baby would be hospitalized for up to a week, a person undergoing gall bladder surgery for as long as 10 weeks. Joint replacement patients who were once hospitalized several days or longer now go home the same day or the next day.
While the changes in medicine have been monumental over the past 45 years, Knedler said her successors will continue to face the need to bring enough specialists — medical specialists — to Council Bluffs. They will also face the challenges of managing health care payments.
“With the changes in the delivery of health care, we are dealing with charging for services by days to charging by hours,” she said.
Asked what she thinks she will miss the most after retiring, Knedler was quick to answer.
“I’ll miss the fast pace and the people I work with. The things people do to help absolutely blows me away,” she said. “I’ll miss the people, the staff and the medical staff. The medical staff we have in place today is exceptional. They are very invested. They are willing to roll up their sleeves and help one another.”
“I honestly don’t know that I would change anything,” she added. “I’ve had a great life and a great career.”
Asked why she decided to retire now, Knedler said she feels she’s met most of her primary goals – to make sure there are enough physicians, clinics and equipment to meet the needs to the residents of Council Bluffs.
“It’s time to turn it over to the next group,” she said. “I want to take a break. My husband, Mike, loves to travel, and he’s got trips planned through 2022. At some point I may do some consulting.”
Recognized for her successes in leadership roles, the outgoing administrator was asked what advice she would give young people hoping to emulate her success in today’s business world.
“Bury your ego,” she said. “Hire the best talent you can and get out of their way. Always remember their value.”