St. Gerard's Community of Care

Owned and operated by the Sisters of St. Francis, St. Gerard's offers a cheerful 37-bed skilled nursing home, an independent living wing, child care services and a preschool program, located in the lovely rural setting of Hankinson, ND, where residents, family and staff are well known to one another. Every new face at St. Gerard's quickly becomes a part of our family.

St. Gerard's is a vital part of the Hankinson community as well as the surrounding areas, with a staff of over 70 full-time and part-time employees.

Our residents and families find it comforting that we offer a strong spiritual services program with a resident Chaplain available. There is a daily Catholic mass as well as regular services for other denominations in the facility.

Our quality of service is shown consistently with positive results on both Federal and State level surveys. St. Gerard's has also consistently maintained a 5 out of 5-star rating with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

We offer a full range of Therapies in house and many come here after hospitalization to regain their physical strength and get back to daily living. St. Gerard's provides a professional level of skilled care, both short-term and long-term. We offer a Certified Nurse Assistant training program at our facility, as well as many other educational opportunities.

Why was St. Gerard’s named "St. Gerard’s"? St. Gerard’s Community of Care was named in 1952 in honor of Msgr. Gerard Bierens, then pastor of St. Philip’s Parish, and for St. Gerard Majella, the patron of expectant mothers. In those years Hankinson had no nearby hospital and many families were growing. Fargo’s Bishop Leo Dworshak asked the Sisters to begin and staff a hospital for these families. St. Gerard was born at Muro, Italy, in 1726 and joined the Redemptorists at the age of 23, becoming a professed lay brother in 1752. His charity, obedience, and selfless service as well as his ceaseless mortification for Christ, made him the perfect model of lay brothers. He was afflicted with tuberculosis and died in 1755 at the age of twenty-nine. This great saint is invoked as a patron of expectant mothers as a result of a miracle effected through his prayers for a woman in labor.