Campaign for New Postville Clinic Receives First Large Gift
FreedomBank is the first corporate sponsor to come forward with a large donation to the fundraising campaign for a new Veterans Memorial Hospital Postville Medical Clinic. Their generous donation of $10,000 was recently gifted to this project as a pacesetting donation to help jump-start this campaign.
FreedomBank Vice President, Barb Shull, states, “This project provides accessibility to additional health care right in our communities. In addition, VMH has worked hard at bringing in new employees including providers and a psychiatric mental health nurse to support the people right here in our local areas. We are proud to donate to a project that supports both the people and the growing businesses for the overall success of our local counties.”
The needs for a new clinic are many, but focuses on the lack of space for the growing number of patients at the clinic each day. Laura Baxter, Waukon and Postville Clinic Director, states, “Our Postville Medical Clinic has been growing so well, going from 2 patients a day up to 16 per day at times. Our provider appointment slots are full most every day and we have so much more demand in both family health care and behavioral health care. Fortunately we do have new providers who are beginning to care for the Postville community, but we have nowhere to put them. We are currently using the hallway space for their offices.”
The new clinic will have an additional three exam rooms for a total of five, plus a new procedure room and lab area. There will also be a new behavioral health clinic area for private consultations in a more comfortable, confidential atmosphere, as well as office space.
“With the new clinic, we will be able to begin to take those walk-in patients once again, plus expand our hours, opening earlier in the morning and remaining open all day without closing for lunch,” adds Baxter. “This will all allow us to truly provide access to quality health care here at home.”
The hospital has funding for $480,000 of this total $779,000 project. They are currently fundraising, with a goal of $200,000, plus searching for grants for the remaining balance of the project. The Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation has adopted this campaign as their fundraiser for the year. A mailing was sent to all members of the area communities nearly one month ago, with additional details of the project and a donation form.
Community meetings were held in Postville the last two weeks for questions and answers about this upcoming project. For any additional information, please contact Beth Shafer, Growth and Development Coordinator at 563-568-3411.
