(Spirit Lake)– A ribbon cutting ceremony was held this (Thurs.) morning marking completion of the new Lakes Regional Family Medicine and renovation of the west side of Lakes Regional Healthcare. CEO Jason Harrington says the new facility offers a number of amenities and improvements over what the former facility had…
“There’s many things in that clinic that will improve patient access and the process of patient care; there’s some privacy things that have been added to that. From a physician perspective, recruiting physicians to rural is certainly very difficult and challenging. And I think we didn’t have any opportunity for growth in either of the two locations so we have an opportunity to grow, we have a state-of-the-art facility that physicians will be interested in in coming here and staying here, that’s very important to them. From the community’s perspective I think to have a cohesive group of family physicians that, and we do, and that’s really a testament to them and the culture they’ve built and the physicians they recruit and we’re grateful for that. So I think that Lakes Regional Family Medicine, the building itself, the clinic, will really position us for the next 20 or 25 years.”
The project was financed largely through an $8 million low interest loan through the USDA Rural Development. Harrington says if it hadn’t been for that, the project probably wouldn’t have been possible. Betty Brand, Deputy Under Secretary for the USDA Rural Development, says the application from Lakes Regional Healthcare had been in the pipeline about three years…
“So our money comes from Congress and they decide how much that we have in each of our programs and then we rank the applications and there’s factors: the community need, the ability, the sustainability of the project and the feasibility of it and then they’re selected upon those criteria and we’re very happy that this community was one of the beneficiaries of that award.”
Harrington says a combination of being able to lock into a very low interest rate and refinancing of a previous bond will put them in a very strong position in the future…
“The actual dollars, the cashflow going out after we bring this clinic online, is no different than it was before we brought it online. So we’ve really not increased our cashflow demands and so if my predecessor in 10 years or otherwise or in 20 years isn’t going to be burdened with significant debt or this requirement to pay off a large amount of debt in a short period of time. Now they certainly could, but it’s a fixed rate and at the rate of something around two percent likely, I don’t know why you would. And that’s no testament to us. That’s just good luck, frankly.”
Harrington says the new clinic had been on the drawing board about 10 years.
(Pictured in photos: Jason Harrington, CEO Lakes Regional Healthcare, and Betty Brand, Deputy Under Secretary of USDA Rural Development
