Pediatric nurse practitioner Reina Glandon interacts with 9-month-old Sorin Moon during an Aug. 13 appointment at the Eastern Iowa Health Center’s pediatrics clinic in southeast Cedar Rapids. The center, a federally qualified health center serving Eastern Iowa, has seen significant growth in recent years with the expansion of dental, women’s and pediatric health care. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Ten years ago, Eastern Iowa Health Center’s languishing nonprofit operations were focused on survival.
Thanks to new leadership over the last decade, the Federally Qualified Health Center in Cedar Rapids has grown its budget and staff five-fold.
In the last year, the medical campus has unveiled a $5.6 million dental clinic and a new pediatric clinic.
Next year, EIHC plans to open a $1.5 million pharmacy and urgent care center, which will eliminate the neighborhood’s status as a desert for both.
Now, the nonprofit is thriving as it serves uninsured, underinsured and Medicaid patients in facilities that rival many private practices.
CEDAR RAPIDS — For the institution that provides health care to some of the most vulnerable Eastern Iowa residents, its own good health was not always a given.
Just 10 years ago, the Eastern Iowa Health Center struggled to attract medical providers, earn referrals from community partners and maintain a quality reputation in the community it served. It had no cash on hand, an unhealthy debt load looming large and a budget five times smaller than today’s.
The Federally Qualified Health Center on the cusp between the MedQuarter and Wellington Heights started in 2004 with a determined board of directors who saw a need for continuous care among the area’s uninsured, underinsured and Medicaid patients. By 2014, it had gone through two chief executive officers as Iowa’s second-youngest federally qualified center.
“We had some very bleak years, and at times I thought survival was a goal,” said John Brandt, a founding member and current vice president of its board. “We wanted to put together a continuum of services, but first we had to survive.”
Years before it added a state-of-the-art dental clinic, OB/GYN care and a pediatric clinic, it was a place in need of remodeling, where you couldn’t roll a wheelchair.
“Sometimes I’d walk to the Casey’s on First Avenue, because their bathrooms were so much nicer than ours,” said Joe Lock, who has served as the center’s president and CEO since 2014. “If you’ve never been in that Casey’s, it’s nothing to write home about.”
Joe Lock, president and CEO, Eastern Iowa Health Center (Supplied photo)
A decade later, with a suite of services and space still left to be used across its campus, its ailments have vanished under the skilled care of leadership with a vision.
Restoring its health
Lock was tapped for the job of leading the organization after two national searches for a new CEO. With a background in business, he’s turned around three failing nonprofits in Cedar Rapids alone.
Before EIHC, he worked for the Affordable Housing Network, where he developed a passion for the population served by both organizations.
Nine-month-old Sorin Moon gets his growing teeth brushed and examined by Amy Throgmartin, a pediatric dental hygienist, as Sorin’s mother, Alexis O’Neal, distracts him during an Aug. 13 appointment at the Eastern Iowa Health Center’s pediatrics clinic in southeast Cedar Rapids. With a new pediatric clinic this year and the expansion of other specialties in recent years, billable visits are on track at the center to increase 55 percent among its roughly 18,000 patients in fiscal 2024. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
“They couldn’t get anyone to touch (EIHC) with a 10-foot pole,” Lock recalled. “They talked about the (high) demand and how it was a Dumpster fire, to put it in a kind way.”
After auditing financials and receiving consternation from his wife, he accepted the job. Above all, he saw the need. But he also saw potential in the languishing nonprofit’s financial records, and aimed its goals accordingly.
Twenty months after Lock started, the organization managed to stash away one day of cash. Today, it commands its sustainability with 120 days of cash on hand, and an untapped $2 million line of credit. It’s also raised $3.25 million without a capital campaign.
In 10 years, EIHC’s budget has grown five times — from $3.7 million to $18.5 million. Its workforce has swelled even more, from 18 employees to 130 — about 30 of whom were hired in the last six months alone.
“It’s directly correlated to the need in this community,” Lock said. “People just don’t understand the level of poverty that exists in this community.”
With a new pediatric clinic this year and the expansion of other specialties in recent years, billable visits are on track to increase 55 percent among its roughly 18,000 patients in fiscal 2024.
Pediatric nurse practitioner Reina Glandon (left) checks the ears of 9-month-old Sori Moon while Sorin’s father, Chase Moon, comforts him during an Aug. 13 appointment at the Eastern Iowa Health Center’s pediatrics clinic in southeast Cedar Rapids. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Nearly two-thirds of its patients are on Medicaid, and 68 percent live at or below the federal poverty level. But thanks to increased quality in services, EIHC has developed a reputation not just as a clinic for the disadvantaged, but a clinic for everyone. Today, 11 percent of its patients bring in commercial funding from private insurance, too — a slice on the pie chart that didn’t exist before.
Who qualifies?
While many patients at Eastern Iowa Health Center use Medicaid, the nonprofit accepts new patients with private insurance plans, or no insurance at all. All patients are treated without qualification or means tests, and a sliding scale is available to make care more affordable for patients with high deductible insurance plans.
Learn more about the Federally Qualified Health Center and the services it provides at easterniowahealthcenter.com.
“More than likely, wherever you go to the doctor, our place is nicer,” Lock said. “Our patients deserve to be treated with the dignity and respect that everyone should have.”
And with over $1.7 million in annual funding coming from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, EIHC has managed a rare feat: bipartisan support on health care among elected officials. With the ability to provide quality care for 21 cents on the dollar compared with private practice, Lock said EIHC has made friends across political party lines.
Brandt credits much of the nonprofit’s recent success to Lock’s background in building community relations.
“It helped us grow our roots in the community and become a respected organization,” he said. “One of the reasons we’ve had so much growth recently is … he enhanced our reputation and credibility.”
New facilities beget better health
Artist Jennifer Davis paints a mural Aug. 11 on the front wall of the Eastern Iowa Health Center’s pediatrics clinic in southeast Cedar Rapids. The center, a federally qualified health center serving Eastern Iowa, has seen significant growth in recent years — and sees more potential to serve the community. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Today, EIHC has expanded well beyond its family medicine scope to offer pediatrics, dental, adult mental health services via telehealth and OB/GYN.
Doctors there — the only such health center with OB/GYN in Iowa — deliver 50 to 70 babies a month.
With the opening of a 3,000-square-foot pediatric clinic last month, EIHC now has more space to see babies as they grow up, too. Through eight new exam rooms, the pediatric clinic will alleviate pressure on the organization’s family medicine clinic and give providers more bandwidth to care for teenagers and young adults transitioning out of pediatric care.
In a place designed to engage children, kids can enjoy playing instead of having to sit still and be quiet. And with better separation of populations that are more susceptible to viruses, both younger children and older adults face fewer risks from simply going to the doctor.
The new clinic “gives us a dedicated staff for that patient population,” said Holly Ziegenmeyer, operations manager of family medicine and pediatrics.
Two years ago, a patient would have had to wait three weeks to get an appointment, she said. Now, with triage nurses directing traffic, they can get in the same day they call, or the following day.
Numbers signify patient exam rooms at the Eastern Iowa Health Center’s pediatrics clinic in southeast Cedar Rapids. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Eastern Iowa Health Center’s dental clinic, started several years ago on a much smaller scale, opened in a $5.6 million building in November with new technology. Last year, the old clinic’s eight treatment rooms saw 10,000 dental visits. They expect to close this year with 25,000 visits across 18 treatment rooms.
That’s not even counting the 5,000 square feet on the dental clinic’s second floor, waiting to be used.
The next 10 years
After 10 years of challenges and 10 years of turnaround, the next decade could be the icing on the cake for a flourishing organization.
With an average of about 12,800 patients annually over the last seven years, EIHC is serving only one-third of the population it could be, Lock said. He estimates 30 percent more growth in the next four years.
The next frontier for continuity of care on campus is a pharmacy and urgent care center. Located on campus at 400 12th St. SE, it’s expected to dispense 35,000 prescriptions in its first year after it goes online in March 2025.
The $1.5 million center will repurpose the medical center’s old respiratory clinic, out of use after the worst waves of COVID-19 infections started to recede. Though it comes after the closure of Hy-Vee near Wellington Heights — one of the only pharmacies there — it’s been in the works for years as a “hope and dream” for staff, Ziegenmeyer said.
Plans came into focus this year after a needs assessment surveyed over 1,000 nearby patients in four languages.
Dr. Lucas Lemburg treats Heidi Franklin of Covington at the Eastern Iowa Health Center’s dental clinic in southeast Cedar Rapids on April 5. The multimillion dollar expansion of the dental clinic increases the number of chairs to 18 and includes the newest dental imaging technology. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
“When you read the needs assessment, it makes you either want to cry or pull out your checkbook, just because the need is so great,” Lock said. “Between Wellington Heights and Mound View, that really is a food and pharmacy desert. We want to be part of the solution.”
With 10,000 square feet and a drive-through envisioned for the center, Lock is working to secure funding for technology that will rival the dental clinic, too. If funding is secured, new automation will be able to dispense into individual prescriptions fully-packaged medications in 23 seconds, start to finish.
As pharmacies nationwide struggle to secure support staff, that $410,000 innovation will return its investment in under five years. Other technology on the radar will organize medications into daily packets for patients, ensuring they take the right pills at the right time.
That’s more than a convenience, Lock said. With a median of only 50 percent of patients adhering to prescribed medication regiments, it translates to substantial health improvements.
Later, EIHC plans to bring telehealth optometry to Cedar Rapids — a plan that would make it the second in the state to offer that service, after Costco Optical in Davenport.
From innovation across its suite of services to partnerships that serve holistic needs across the board, Eastern Iowa Health Center isn’t just a place where the disadvantaged can go for care — it’s a place where their needs are served.
For many patients, that’s a sigh of relief money can’t buy.
“EIHC has just blossomed, and it’s so satisfying to see an idea you had 20 years ago reach the level it has now,” Brandt said. “This has expanded beyond my dreams.”
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or [email protected].
