(Spirit Lake)– A report authorized by the Iowa Hospital Association details the economic impacts local hospitals have on the communities they serve. Jason Harrington, President and CEO of Lakes Regional Healthcare, says the numbers for LRH are very significant…
“In 2024 I think the report would show that we generated about $106 million towards the Dickinson county economy and really kind of the broader economy. Within that, then Steve, there’s two million dollars of what in community-based non-profit healthcare gets, referred to as community benefit, and community benefit includes two things primarily: one, it’s uncompensated care. So one of the things that I’m very proud of as a community hospital is we provide care to everybody who shows up at our door regardless of their ability to pay. So in 2024 we provided $1.36 million of uncompensated care. The rest of that that goes into the $2 million are services that we provide for which either there’s no reimbursement or the reimbursement goes far below what would be available for those services. And so those are services that are important to the community that we provide irrespective of the cost associated with them.”
In addition, Harrington says LRH is one of Dickinson county’s largest employers…
“We employ about 400 employees and so the wages and salaries and benefits on annual basis, that number is upwards of $20 million and actually probably closer to 25. So it gives you some indication of the impact from an employment perspective that LRH has.”
The study was compiled from hospital-submitted data to the American Hospital Association’s annual survey of hospitals. Statewide in Iowa the findings show hospitals employed 141,078 people in 2024 with more than $9.6 billion in wages. Expenses accounted for more than $22.9 billion of the state’s gross domestic product.
