Falls City plans new hospital project

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BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star

FALLS CITY — Community leaders and local health care professionals will do next month what hasn’t been done for 90 years in this city of 4,671: They’ll break ground for a new hospital.

Yet five years ago, had you asked the Community Medical Center’s board of directors if it would have supported such an endeavor, the answer would have been, “Not likely.”

Built in 1918, the hospital was expanded and renovated five times between 1963 and 1996. The board planned to renovate again because members thought new construction would cost too much.

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A rendering that shows what the new Community Medical Center in Falls City will look when completed in late 2009. (Courtesy/Community Medical Center)

A rendering that shows what the new Community Medical Center in Falls City will look when completed in late 2009. (Courtesy/Community Medical Center)

“The more we started looking at designs and the issues, (renovating) wasn’t feasible,” said Rodger Merz, a local businessman and chairman of the hospital board.

Engineering and design studies put the cost of renovation at more than $20 million.

In addition, board members learned remodeling  would take an estimated five years, which could have raised costs even higher, to say nothing of the long disruption to hospital operations. And when it was done, Falls City would end up with a medical center that was adequate, but not ideal.

“It isn’t a good use of our money to sink this much into our facility and not get what we want to have,” Merz said.

So, after lots of meetings and number crunching, the board decided to build a new $21-million, 68,000-square-foot hospital on the northern edge of town. They plan to break ground April 24 and hope the hospital will open in late 2009.

Ryan Larsen, CEO of Community Medical Center, said the hospital will pay for the project with private loans, savings and a fundraising drive. Because the hospital is an independent, nonprofit institution, no tax dollars will be used.

A fundraising committee is working to reach a goal of $1.5 million. About $17 million will be borrowed, with the rest being covered by savings, Larsen said.

Hospital leaders looked into obtaining bonds for the project, but decided to pursue loans with more attractive interest rates. They plan to pay the loans off over 30 years.

Crucial to the financial plan is the hospital’s status as a rural critical access hospital. The federal government makes higher Medicare reimbursements to critical access hospitals, and those reimbursements will allow the Falls City hospital to repay its loans.

The federal program, which started in the late 1990s, has helped fund expansions or new hospitals in Crete, Wahoo, Hebron and Beatrice, Larsen said. If Congress decides to end the critical access program, the Falls City hospital would be just one small-town medical center in trouble.

The board’s research into the question indicated the program is relatively safe among lawmakers, in part because it represents just a sliver of the government’s health care spending, Larsen said.

The former hospital building served the community well for nearly a century, Larsen said. Both he and the hospital board want to create a new building that meets Falls City’s needs a similar time period.

“We realize this is our only shot to do something like this in the next 20 years,” he said.

The new hospital will feature 24 beds in private rooms with showers. The current building has a similar number of beds, but the rooms are double-occupancy and are served by common showers in each hallway.

The new building will also provide increased space and a more efficient floor plan for the emergency room, Larsen said. It will be single-story, so nurses won’t have to go up and down stairs to treat patients and cover the emergency room.

The design also calls for two labor and delivery rooms with maternity suites, a state-of-the-art surgery center and more space for visiting specialists, including several from Lincoln.

The hospital’s in-patient population averages about 15 per day, typically peaking at around 23 during flu season, Larsen said. The hospital is served by four family practice physicians, a surgeon and four mid-level providers, such as physician's assistants and nurse practitioners.

The building project represents a cornerstone to the community’s ongoing renewal efforts. In recent years, a new library and a water park have been built in Falls City, about 100 miles from Lincoln in far Southeast Nebraska. Plus, a historic downtown hotel is undergoing a major renovation.

The hospital project not only will help make the community more attractive to businesses and individuals considering a move to Falls City, it represents significant economic development in its own right. The hospital employs about 200 people directly or indirectly, Larsen said, making it Richardson County’s largest employer.

It’s time to build a new hospital, said Dr. Dorothy Sue Jennings of Falls City. Advances in medicine simply have outgrown the space provided by a 90-year-old building, she said.

As a local physician, she’s approached frequently by residents who want to know more about the project. She couldn’t recall hearing from anyone who opposes it.

With the exception of one colleague who favored remodeling the old hospital, all health care professionals in town support the building project, Jennings said.

“I’m really gung-ho on the project myself,” she said.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.