Construction Progresses on Expansion at Decatur County Hospital

At Decatur County Hospital, progress is being made on the new addition to house the DCH Outpatient Clinic. Starting the week of March 7th, construction crews began installing the steel for the main structure of the new building. This step marks the most visible construction step to date.

Once the structural steel is finalized, the next step will be to start enclosing the building by adding exterior walls and a roof. Once the building is enclosed, work on the interior layout of the building can begin. Construction is progressing according to schedule with a tentative opening in October. This new building will house all DCH Outpatient Clinic activities in a significantly larger space than the clinic currently occupies. The new building will increase our available clinic space from 2,211 square feet to 7,720 square feet, and will include 18 exam rooms versus our current 7. This increase in space will allow for more patient appointments, expansion of available days for our providers, and the addition of new providers and specialized services.

Even as we wait for the opening of the new building, the DCH Outpatient Clinic continues to evolve to meet the needs of our community. The two most recent expansions include the addition of an Endocrinologist that will visit 4 days each month starting March 21st, and an additional visit from our Urologist each month starting in April.

In addition to these 2 services, the DCH Outpatient Clinic provides convenient access to 13 other specialty services, many of which were added at the direct request of our community members. Services such as endocrinology, neurology, rheumatology, chronic pain management, and pain services are not available elsewhere in our region, or other regional facilities may have long wait times to get an appointment.

The construction also addresses a growing need for on-site surgeries. A new 747 square feet surgical suite will be constructed to allow for more surgeries to take at our facility. With 6 specialists now providing surgeries on site at Decatur County Hospital, this second surgical suite will allow us to provide more surgeries each day, which will help save you the drive to Des Moines for routine or emergency procedures.

Due to the Board of Trustees’ conservative financial management of the hospital’s income and expenditures, there will be NO impact on property taxes for our community members to finance this construction. The new building will be paid for with revenue bonds, and will not increase our property tax levy.

Easy access to specialty health care providers has never been more important. As we see an increase in chronic conditions, and conditions that require unique treatment plans, it is critical that your local hospital has the facilities necessary to host specialists who provide the care you deserve. With this expansion, our specialists and staff will be able to work with patients to utilize all the high-level services that Decatur County Hospital has to offer.

During construction, the existing DCH Outpatient Clinic will continue to operate as usual. Be sure to subscribe to your local newspaper, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date on our progress.

All of the staff, providers, and trustees look forward to continuing to serve you with compassionate care throughout this transition, and we are excited to continue to offer big city services with our hometown care in a brand new facility.