OTTUMWA —
To survive, small towns and rural communities need their hospitals. During her visit to Ottumwa Regional Health Center on Thursday, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds said she and the governor understand.
Rural hospitals are “extremely important” she said. “We want to make sure there is access to health care in rural communities.”
During a recent Courier interview with hospital CEO Phil Dionne, he agreed that without certain establishments in place — schools or hospitals, for example — it’s very hard for a community to grow. Thursday, he said he felt like Reynolds understood that.
Reynolds said health care is important to keep “rural communities vibrant.”
That’s why there’s extra emphasis on rural communities in the governor’s physician “residency reimbursement program.” Getting doctors to an area, Reynolds said, is a big part of supporting health care.
About a week ago, during Gov. Terry Branstad’s Condition of the State address, he mentioned some problems and a plan to resolve them, Reynolds said.
Over the past 10 years, Iowa has fallen behind other states in the rate of doctors per 100,000 residents. Iowa is last in the country in numbers of both emergency medicine and obstetrics/gynecology doctors. Other specialties don’t look much better: Iowa is 46th in the nation in internal medicine, 47th in the nation in pediatrics and 48th in psychiatry.
Reynolds said she was impressed with the recruitment successes of ORHC. In an area that was so short on doctors that many were refusing to accept new patients, ORHC brought in 11 new physicians in about a year.
The state hopes to help increase the number of physicians, too.
The governor’s budget calls for $2 million to support medical residency programs in Iowa and an additional $2 million to launch the Rural Physician Loan Repayment Program.
In that plan, young doctors will receive assistance with their tuition from medical school if they practice in high-need areas. On Thursday, Reynolds said the program was initially just for primary care physicians, but it has now been expanded to include OB/GYN and emergency medicine doctors.
The other productive part of the meeting came from discussing a federal issue. While Medicaid may be a state program, Dionne explained, the state needs to know what the feds will be offering, since that’s where the funding from Medicaid comes from.
The board of the hospital and administrators escorted Reynolds through the hospital, showing her the new emergency department and the rescue units. She said she enjoyed seeing the hospital, but the visit was also productive for Ottumwa Regional, Dionne said.
Last week, he told the Courier about the IowaCares program, which requires the poorest and most vulnerable patients to drive from Ottumwa to Des Moines.
Dionne said that program will soon sunset, and he believes Reynolds will bring his concerns about it to the governor. Reynolds said there are only two hospitals in the state where those patients can go, which is not ideal.
In fact, under the current program, if an IowaCares patient goes to ORHC instead of the designated hospital, ORHC will not be reimbursed at all by the program.
That defies common sense, Reynolds said. It’s reasonable to want to be paid for services rendered, she said.
She added that during Branstad’s speech, he made a bold claim that they fully intend to pursue: One of the administration’s priorities, she said, is to ensure that Iowa is the healthiest state in the nation.
ORHC planning Haiti assistance
Ottumwa Regional Health Center’s parent company, RegionalCare Hospital Partners along with Medical Mobile Disaster Relief in Nashville, Tenn., will be building a 40-bed hospital and outpatient clinic in the town of Thomazeau outside of Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
With this, several staff members will be joining a relief team that will be traveling to the region in early summer. Much of the old equipment that was in the former St. Joseph Hospital will be going to Haiti for this project.
“This is a huge personal undertaking for these employees volunteering to go to Haiti,” said Suzie Wood, ORHC executive director of development.
The staff is preparing to travel to Haiti by getting monthly updates on activities they will participate in including building the hospital, performing medical procedures, cooking and serving food, conducting Bible study and teaching in the school.
The hospital will cover all the shots and medical exams before participants depart, and paying for half of the time away from the hospital as well as one-half of the total $2,000 cost to go.
Those wishing to donate to the cause, may call Wood, 641-684-2351.
Wapello County
Related Photos
-
CEO Philip Dionne of Ottumwa Regional Health center gives Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds a tour of the hopital Thursday, including the newly rebuilt emergency department. The Lt. Gov. said new programs should help rural areas recruit doctors. Mark Newman/The Courier
January 25, 2013
Rural health care discussed
Lieutenant governor tours ORHC
- Wapello County
-
- Tornado creates local questions OTTUMWA — If there's a tornado in Wapello County, where would I go afterwards? It isn't hard to understand why local callers are asking Wapello County Emergency Management that question. Josh Stevens, emergency coordinator for the county, said since
- County to learn about disaster declarations OTTUMWA — The county is a step closer to finding out if they'll be getting money from the federal government. "FEMA was here last week, doing a damage assessment," said Wapello County Engineer Brian Moore during a meeting of the Wapello County Board
- Roaring winds Southeast Iowa in clean-up mode after storm passes through OTTUMWA — Work crews in and around Wapello County put in a lot of hours. And they were ready to do it again. “We had the storms roll through there last night,” said Ryan Stensland, a spokesman for Alliant Energy. “Down in southeast part of the state,
- Mixed reactions to tax reduction OTTUMWA — During past public forums in Ottumwa, Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa, told voters the state should follow its own laws and make taxes equal across the board. This week, legislators in Des Moines took a first step toward that goal, which is a
- Budget shift on county agenda OTTUMWA — There's nothing like having some money in the budget to cover a project that doesn't have enough money on its line item. The Wapello County Supervisors will need to move some money to an item that has spent all of its funding, according to
- Wellness challenge asks people to live healthy OTTUMWA — Are you ready for the Live Healthy Iowa 10-Week Wellness Challenge? Some of the city employees joined Live Healthy Iowa, and Jody Gates, the city's health director, was captain of one of the two teams of about a dozen people. "Our goals for
-
Agency couple has provided foster care for 38 kids in last decade
AGENCY — School pictures of 38 grinning children look out into Angie and Terry Hamm's living room, evidence of the years of work and love they've given to those who needed it most. Their house — currently filled with five children, ages 7, 10, 10, 11
-
Severe weather returns to forecast
OTTUMWA — The National Weather Service believes severe weather could return to Iowa this weekend. The storms are expected to arrive late in the weekend and could extend into the next work week. Meteorologist Kurt Kotenberg said Sunday and Monday have
-
Health clinic in Ottumwa joins Mercy Medical
OTTUMWA — Though their future was uncertain, two local health care practices will continue without any interruption in services to patients and will remain at their current locations in Ottumwa. Ottumwa Internal Medicine North and Ottumwa Family Prac
- 90th Street closed until 2014 OTTUMWA — Not only is 90th Street closed for this summer, it's also closed until the summer of 2014. Wapello County Engineer Brian Moore said Wednesday that the road will be closed for a year while Moore and his team work on the road's design. "There
- More Wapello County Headlines
