HAWARDEN, Iowa | In just seven months, folks in and around Hawarden gave and/or pledged $2.5 million to help see a construction project through at the Hawarden Regional Healthcare facility.
Some $325,000 came from the Hospital Auxiliary, a group in town that raises tens of thousands of dollars each year by running a thrift store downtown.
"They generate an enormous amount of revenue," said Jayson Pullman, CEO of Hawarden Regional Healthcare. "People drop off used items, which they inspect and wash and then put out for sale. They're able to generate anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500 per week. It's crazy. And they do that every week."
Those sale items from a store that's open only on Thursday and Saturday played a key role in helping fuel a local contribution that's part of a $14 million upgrade. Officials broke ground on the project in May 2015. Construction should wrap up early this summer.
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The effort has seen the following areas addressed:
A new emergency room; new radiology suites; a new outreach-specialty space; a new operating room; eight new inpatient rooms; a new laboratory; a new cafeteria; and a new kitchen.
Pullman said he'd tell people that they were building a new hospital and placing it next to the old one.
"We basically hit all the modalities of a new hospital," said Pullman. "We just didn't build it in a new greenspace."
The last major construction project at the hospital in Hawarden came in 1999. Before that, a wing was added/renovated in 1965.
"This was necessary because we had limited surgical capacity," Pullman said. "We also had inpatient rooms with double-occupancy and not showers. Patients had to go into our hall and then into a common shower area.
"Additionally, our ER (emergency room) was outdated and we had some radiology services on one floor and some on another floor," he added. "You sometimes had to take a patient who needed an X-ray into the elevator and down to X-ray. And then you'd have to take them back into the elevator and up into the OR (operating room)."
With the new work done, all inpatient and outpatient services will be on one floor.
"We used to have multiple levels in the past," he said. "This change will be very nice."
The $14 million project is financed via an $8.8 million USDA Rural Development 30-year loan with an interest rate of less than 3.75 percent. Some $2 million comes from loans from Peoples Bank in Hawarden and Iowa State Bank in nearby Ireton, Iowa.
The balance, according to Pullman, comes through owner equity.
Hawarden Regional Healthcare, which is city-owned, employs about 80 persons and has an annual payroll of $4 million. Patients come to the hospital serving this Sioux County community from nearby Akron, Ireton, Hawarden, and the South Dakota communities of Alcester and Hudson.
During the construction effort, Dr. Beau Waddlell, a native of Akron, was hired. According to Pullman, the building project aided in the recruitment of the new doctor.
"We were in the middle of this building project and we had a physician come and listen to our vision," said Pullman. "He signed on in August, doing so because we were replenishing the resources in our organization and building upon our vision."
The new areas will help Pullman and his staff recruit key pros such as lab techs, radiology techs, nurses, maintenance personnel, doctors and more.
