This past year, we celebrated 130 years of being our community’s trusted health partner. With stories and insights of our legacy from those who came before us, we are inspired and reminded of the legacy we’re continuing to build in Fort Dodge. As we look to a new year, I am proud to share some of our key achievements from 2024.

Introducing new services

One of our highest priorities in 2024 was keeping cardiology care local. We are committed to ensuring patients can receive these critical services close to home. We opened UnityPoint Health – Trinity Heart Center in October and welcomed Dr. Joseph Cookman, Dr. Dinesh Voruganti,and Dr. Jeffrey Carstens to our UnityPoint Health – Fort Dodge cardiology team. We started cardiology telemedicine and outreach services in Humboldt, Sac City and Pocahontas in November. Within just a few short months, we have already been able to see the tremendous impact of keeping cardiology care in our community.

In November, we opened UnityPoint Health – Trinity Family Planning, made possible through a Title X Grant from the Family Planning Council of Iowa. Our team provides education and resources for patients of all ages to keep them healthy and make informed decisions about their sexual health, birth control options and pregnancy.

We also received a grant from the USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program, which allowed us to equip our regional counties with telemedicine equipment. We are now able to provide specialty services, like dermatology, nephrology, pediatrics, pulmonology, women’s health and mental health care to rural clinics.

Expansions, renovations

As we continue to grow our services, we know it is vital to improve as well as make advances so we can continue to successfully treat our patients.

We remodeled our Emergency Department, adding two more behavioral health rooms and allowing our team to work more efficiently to ensure patients visiting the ER will stay and receive the care they need. Currently, we are in the final stages of planning a space to bring inpatient surgery, outpatient surgery and sterile processing together in one location. We are very excited to break ground on our surgery renovation and expansion project this year.

High quality achievements

We are proud to be recognized for our excellent care on a national level. In 2024, UnityPoint Health – Fort Dodge earned a Performance Leadership Award from The Chartis Center for Rural Health. This recognizes the top 25 percent of rural hospitals nationwide for quality, outcomes and patient perspectives.

Trinity Birth Center was recognized by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield with a Blue Distinction Centers+ for Maternity Care designation for offering high quality and cost-effective care, and for taking action to reduce racial health disparities across the maternity care spectrum.

Trinity was also nationally recognized for our commitment to providing high-quality cardiovascular and stroke care. The American Heart Association awarded Trinity the Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus and Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Rural Recognition Bronze. Additionally, Trinity earned honors as a High Performing Hospital for heart attacks by U.S. News.

Recognizing our exceptional team members

One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to recognize our exceptional team members for the ways they go above and beyond. Our team members continually provide compassionate care to our patients and truly make a difference in the lives they touch. In 2024, we recognized 52 team members for their individual accomplishments through our Employee of the Month, ACE (Always Committed to Excellence), SUNSHINE, DAISY and ROSE Award Programs. We also recognized Patty Grossnickle, RN, RN Coordinator, Norma Schmoker Cancer Center, and Desiree Monaghan, RN, Director of Surgical and Emergency Services, as 2024 Great Iowa Nurses.

The Iowa Academy of Family Physicians presented Dr. Sabrina Martinez, Family Medicine – Buena Vista, with the 2024 New Physician Achievement Award. Dr. Martinez provides family medicine, obstetrical care and family planning for individuals in Storm Lake.

Building the next generation

In 2024, we continued to recruit high-quality physicians to Fort Dodge. We added Dr. Michael Hoffman, Dr. Caitlin Mink, and Dr. James Wilson to our Hospital Medicine Team. They bring expertise to our patients in Acute Care and the Critical Care Unit.

Dr. Rebecca Pistorius joined our Berryhill Center team, and is board-certified in general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry. She brings expertise and a compassionate, family-centered approach to the clinic.

And, as we look to the future, we continue to build excitement around health care in the next generation. We launched a paid summer internship program for high school juniors and seniors, college students and non-traditional students. We hosted Nurse Camp, a day-long event for middle school students to learn about nursing in the Simulation Center and brought in local students for job shadows and medical rotations.

Caring for our community

In 2024, we launched ‘High Five Fridays’ where our team members visited local elementary schools each Friday to welcome students to school with a high-five. We also partnered with AFES and local businesses to gift more than 200 new pairs of tennis shoes to middle school students who qualify for free or reduced school lunches. And, we partnered with Fort Frenzy to host ‘Meet and Greet: Santa and the Grinch’ to spread joy during the holiday season.

Our Candlelight Memorial Service and Angels of Love Event brought community members together to honor and remember loved ones. The Norma Schmoker Cancer Center partnered with Hy-Vee and Trinity Foundation to give more than 100 Christmas Cactuses to honor everything caregivers do for their loved ones.

Throughout the year, we hosted educational events, including our Annual Health Fair, Prediabetes Program and Breastfeeding 101 Classes. We also hosted a Lunch & Learn for high school and college students interested in joining the medical field.

To fully understand our county’s demographics along with health and well-being needs, we completed a Community Health Needs Assessment in 2024. Every three years we conduct a survey along with interviews of community members to help us evaluate and understand the unmet health care needs in Webster County.

We are proud to be your trusted health partner – and continue to partner with our community in many ways to deliver exceptional care. Know you are in great hands with our team each and every time you visit our facilities. I am so thankful for an amazing team at UnityPoint Health – Fort Dodge and look forward to sharing many more successes in 2025!

Leah Glasgo is the president of UnityPoint Health – Fort Dodge.