Groundbreaking kicks off $40 million Floyd County Medical Center expansion

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A two-year, $40 million expansion project got officially underway at the Floyd County Medical Center Tuesday afternoon in a groundbreaking ceremony that gathered Medical Center administrators, care providers, trustees and staff, architecture and construction company officers, community leaders and many additional supporters.

About 150 people attended the outdoor ceremony, sitting under and standing around a large canopy set up on the lawn.

Dawnett Willis, the medical center CEO, recounted details of the project that has been designed and refined since the hospital Board of Trustees gave the official go-ahead more than a year ago.

“The main hospital will see a new entrance with an airy, open and inviting atrium, a large drive-under canopy, welcome desk, registration and waiting areas,” she said about the project that’s expected to be completed in the spring of 2026.

The biggest change, and one of the reasons for the project, will be a new three-story clinic that will be part of the front of the medical center, which will house the rural health family practice clinic, including obstetrics and urgent care, and a new outpatient specialist clinic, which will be located on the third floor, Willis said.

It will include new speech and occupational therapy departments, updates and expansion to the lab departments, new conference and training rooms, “and of course, increased, close, convenient parking for our patients,” she said.

“This project will provide a new state-of-the-art hospital pharmacy with improvements and enhancements that will accommodate future infusion services and oncology needs,” Willis said.

“You’ll walk in the main entrance and if you go straight, you’re at the hospital. If you turn to the left, you’ll walk into the clinic entrance,” she said. “All services will be delivered under the same roof,” so patients will no longer have to go outside and cross a street to get from the clinic to the hospital or from the hospital to the clinic.

“The new expansion will provide FCMC with the quality space it needs to allow the hospital and clinic to grow and continue to add and enhance services to our region for the benefit of the communities that we serve now and well into the future,” Willis said.

The $40 million project will be financed by a $23.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture loan, $10.5 million in loans from local banks, $5 million of the medical center’s own equity, and a $1 million USDA grant for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment (HVAC) for the project.

John Lang, vice president and general manager of the eastern Iowa division of Graham Construction, said the construction is expected to last almost two years, “but it’s not going to feel like two years.”

“There’s going to be a lot of fun milestones along the way and the future of health care is here in Charles City and it’s going to be exciting,” Lang said.

Graham Construction of Des Moines is managing the project as “construction manager at risk,” meaning the company guarantees the project will be completed under a maximum price.

Eleven additional people also gave brief remarks. They were:

• Scott Blum, president of Accord Architecture Co. – “I look around and I see a number of people that we have sat down with for hours, not just minutes, but hours to work on the layout to get the right patient care that’s needed for the entire county.”

• Board of Trustees Chair Ron James – “We started the project process more than two years ago in order to to enable us to offer health care services convenient, close at home, so patients would not have to drive for some services. Once completed, we will have our providers located within the hospital and easily accessible to many ancillary services under one roof.”

• Trustee Randy Heitz – “A recent state survey resulted in the Floyd County Medical Center being the fourth best hospital to work in in Iowa. That says so much about the leadership of our organization. Together, we developed our hospital’s mission to deliver exceptional, personalized health care with compassion. And our medical family demonstrates that mission and our vision, which is to improve the health of our communities through trusted quality care, every patient, every time.”

• Trustee Viva Boerschel, who worked at the Medical Center for 42 hears before retiring – “I continue to be impressed. … There’s no reason for anyone in this community, near this community, to go anywhere else, because we have the best equipment, we’ve got the best staff, the best people. Just give the best care as has been shown time and again.”

• Dr. Angela VanGilder, chief of surgery and medical staff president – “This is a time where there’s a lot of critical access hospitals across the state that are closing their doors, and we get to expand. That’s very, very exciting.”

• Dr. Paul Royer, rural health clinic medical director who has practiced 43 years in Charles City – “This is really a dream come true. … I can’t wait to get into the new clinic.”

• Dr. Ashley Siemons, who has been with the Medical Center a little more than a year – “I always knew I wanted to come back to this area to be able to do rural family practice like it’s supposed to be done. It’s very hard to find that. … We’re just really excited for the new clinic. We are a little cramped over there in the clinic, across the way.”

• Jon Perin, chief ambulatory officer – “We’ve seen tremendous growth overall in the clinic, especially in the areas of obstetrics and deliveries. We’ve had an addition of urgent care, addition of behavioral health and addiction medicine services. With two-thirds of rural areas lacking in these services, that’s a big accomplishment for the hospital. We just thank the community for making health care close to home a priority and for giving us the tools and resources that we need to provide excellent care.”

• Mayor Dean Andrews – “They say the quality of communities is by the opportunities they provide for their citizens, and one of the opportunities that we are fortunate to have here is quality and local health care. It’s a big deal to us in in Charles City.”

• Charles City Community Development Director Mark Wicks – “Not only do we have a local hospital, we have a quality local hospital. The doctors here, the staff, the administration are outstanding. … Not only is this going to be a huge project in the hospital, and so huge for the residents and the people who live in the area, but it’s a huge recruiting tool.”