Floyd County Medical Center may not know cancer clinic trial decision for months

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

It may be in the new year before the Floyd County Medical Center learns whether a $10 million bequest to build a cancer treatment center will be awarded to the hospital in Charles City.

But the FCMC administrator said the medical center will likely go ahead with plans for a cancer center regardless of the verdict.

The non-jury trial pitting the local hospital against Mayo Clinic of Rochester concluded last week in Chickasaw County District Court.

Dawnett Willis, FCMC’s CEO, said that the two sides are waiting for transcripts of the trial, then each side has a certain amount of time to file briefs, then Judge Richard Stochl has 60 days to file his order.

“I’m guessing January,” Willis said about when the decision might be known.

In the case, FCMC argued that the bequest in the will of Herman Stille, a Nashua-area farmer who died in September 2021, should be honored to fund a cancer treatment center at the hospital.

Mayo argued that FCMC can’t meet all the stipulations in Stille’s will for a cancer clinic, and so the money should go to Mayo for Alzheimer’s research. Stille had also listed Mayo in the will, but with one major qualification.

Willis said the trial ended a day earlier than had been scheduled, partly because Judge Stochl did not allow a couple of Mayo’s witnesses to testify.

Judge Stochl was pretty clear that he wasn’t going to allow testimony that wasn’t relevant, Willis said.

One of the witnesses was going to talk about how great Mayo’s Alzheimer’s research program is, Willis said, but the judge ruled that was irrelevant to the question being considered.

Another Mayo witness had filed a large report on why FCMC shouldn’t or couldn’t have a linear accelerator to administer radiation treatment, but the hospital had already stipulated that it almost certainly could not get state certification to add a linear accelerator with four such pieces of equipment already in place within 50 miles of Charles City, and that it would be be economically not feasible to purchase and operate a linear accelerator regardless.

Stochl also ruled that witness couldn’t testify, Willis said.

In his will, Stille left the bulk of his estate to FCMC “for the purpose of establishing a cancer center to serve local area residents if the funds available make such establishment possible.”

The will describes Stille’s idea of the cancer clinic, saying,“The treatment center must have an oncologist on staff, and must be adequate to include office space for oncologists, consultation rooms for patients, separate areas for administering radiation, chemotherapy and other cancer treatments, as well as a family gathering area.”

FCMC said that it would make arrangements for area oncologists to hold regular hours in Charles City, and be “fully credentialed and on-staff at FCMC to provide cancer-related services.”

The other stipulation in the will was if FCMC, “loses its independent status and becomes part of a major healthcare corporation,” the assets of the estate would go to Mayo for Alzheimer’s research.

FCMC argued it was clear that Stille wanted to have a cancer center established at the Floyd County Medical Center, and if he had known that some of the ideas in his will were not possible he would have not included them, rather than have them prevent the center from being built.

FCMC also said that even if the judge determined that Stille’s list of cancer center features were absolute requirements that FCMC couldn’t meet, the money still shouldn’t go to Mayo, because the only stipulation in the will for that to happen was if FCMC was no longer independent, and that hadn’t and wouldn’t happen.

Willis said it will be up to the judge to decide how the money in Stille’s estate should be distributed.

Even if the judge decides that FCMC won’t get some or all of he money, the medical center will go ahead with plans for a cancer treatment center, she said.

Willis said the research she and her team had done preparing for the trial had convinced her that such a facility is needed in Floyd County.

If they don’t get the approximately $10 million from the estate it will take longer to complete all the parts of a cancer treatment center, but FCMC plans to start building it as part of a $26 million expansion plan to move the medical center clinic from its current location across the street from the hospital, to become part of the hospital facility.

A pharmacy with the clean room and ventilation equipment needed for compounding chemotherapy drugs will be one of the first parts to be constructed, Willis said.

Once that is built, FCMC can start having oncologists hold office hours at the clinic and can start administering chemotherapy treatments even before a special infusion treatment center is built, she said.

Without the Stille bequest it will take longer to complete the cancer center, but it will remain a priority, Willis said.

“It’s what our community needs, and that’s our job,” she said. “That’s our mission – to serve the health care needs of our community.”