Moville hopes to open new medical clinic by year's end

MOVILLE, Iowa — Ground was broken in November for the new Moville Area Medical Clinic. Once the ground is fully thawed this spring, it will begin to take shape.

"We'll move forward full-force, we hope, on the first of April," said Diane Drevs, Moville Area Medical Clinic president.

The $3.5 million, single-story clinic on Frontage Road along U.S. Highway 20 is the culmination of more than three years of dreaming, planning and fundraising by a group of volunteers from all facets of the community, including the Moville Chamber of Commerce, Moville Community Development Association, and the City of Moville.

"Without a community that works together, this would never happen," Drevs said. "We couldn't have done it without everybody working together toward a common goal."

Construction on the 10,000-square-foot facility is expected to be finished in November, and Drevs said it's hoped the clinic is open by Jan. 1.

The facility will offer family practice, specialists, physical therapy and rehabilitation and urgent care, plus space for on-site laboratory and radiology services in addition to an expanded physical therapy/rehabilitation unit. It will also have unfinished space for a future wellness center.

It's the second time the community has worked together to build a clinic.

In 1994, a group of Moville residents formed a non-profit to address the lack of health care in rural areas. The Moville Area Medical Clinic Committee raised the funds and eventually built the current clinic on Main Street. A physical therapy and rehabilitation center was added later and has been operated by CNOS for several years.

The clinic was operated by the committee until it was purchased by Dr. Thomas Wente of Family Healthcare of Siouxland in 2006. In 2019, he decided to sell the clinic back to the committee, which then partnered with MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center to operate it. Due to its five-year plan, MercyOne said it wanted to move into a larger facility and offer additional services.

So, three decades after building its first clinic, the same committee began raising money for a new health care facility that will serve Moville and the many surrounding rural communities.

"With this location, it helps the whole county," Drevs said.

The clinic will be built on the site of the former Motel 20, which the city of Moville had previously bought and demolished. The committee bought the site from the city for $1.

The largest funding sources for the project include a $1.86 million grant and loan with a zero percent interest rate from the Woodbury County Rural Electric Cooperative and the Department of Rural Development, a $700,000 grant from Missouri River Historic Development, and $250,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding from the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors.

The rest of the funding has come from private funds, local donations and local organizations looking to improve access to medical care.

Once the new clinic is opened, plans call for the old clinic building to be converted into a day care center, thus meeting another need that's been identified in Moville.

Finding a good future use for the current clinic building was a positive development for the medical committee, Drevs said.

"It's just really exciting for the community and to have that service," she said.