Regional Health Services of Howard County will be expanding its medical services to Elma by opening a new medical clinic in 2020, fulfilling the city of Elma’s goal of bringing a medical clinic to the community. Regional Health Services of Howard County Elma Clinic will provide family care services to include physicals, prenatal care, acute visits, lab services, and well child checks.
The new clinic will be built as a part of the Elma Community Complex (ECC) project and will be located on the Blue Bird Block of Busti Avenue. The first phase of the ECC project involved deconstructing the brick school building, completed last month. The project is now onto the second phase which includes the construction of the medical clinic. The third phase will be re-purposing a portion of the gymnasium into a city clerk’s office and multipurpose community room. The fourth phase involves adding a larger infant room onto the existing day care and re-purposing the current infant room into a 3-year-old preschool. The fifth phase is renovating the remaining portion of the gym into a library, then wrapping up the project by finishing the parking lot and landscaping. “Increased day care capacity, local medical services, fully handicap accessible library adjacent to day care and bus-stop, and sustainable operating costs are a few of the goals of this multi-phase project. The services these non-profits provide are important to our community,” shared Bruce Weigel, ECC Committee member.
He went on to say the committee is still actively fund raising, and the project will be done in phases as funding allows. The goal is to raise $1.2 million with $479,000 committed thus far. The committee plans to apply for a number of private grants and hopes to raise $200,000-$300,000 through these grants. The remainder needs to come from private donations of citizens and businesses. “We welcome and appreciate gifts of all sizes. All donors will be recognized unless they wish to remain anonymous. The medical building and library have yet to be named. Visit with a committee member if this is something you might be interested in,” shared Weigel. For more information on the Elma Clinic, contact Kyle Teeling, VP of Ancillary Services at Regional Health Services at 563-547-6313 or Shannon Gebel, Elma City Clerk at 641-393-2543. You may also watch for updates to be posted to rhshc.com and elmaia.com, as well as the ‘Regional Health Services of Howard County’ and ‘Elma Iowa’ Facebook pages.