This center grew from free clinics held in local churches. In April 2006, today’s Community Health Center began operating as a federally qualified health center. That designation means it accepts most forms of insurance and offers a sliding fee scale based on a patient’s ability to pay.

The center started at 126 N. 10th St. in a building that has been expanded and renovated a couple of times. It remains in use today.

A clinic in Dayton opened in 2014. Sites in Mason City (2018), Eagle Grove (2023), Clarion (2024) and Spencer (2025) followed.

Medical, dental and behavioral health care are offered at all of the sites except the one in Dayton, which only offers medical care. Additionally, optometry is now being offered in Fort Dodge and Mason City

-Submitted photo
Dylan Kruckenberg, pharmacy tech at Community Health Center of Fort Dodge, fills a prescription. The in-house pharmacy at the health center is available to their patients and helps reduce barriers to getting needed medications by eliminating the need for transportation to another location, as well as by being able to offer reduced pricing on some medications.

The center employs 143 people across all six of its locations.

Renae Kruckenberg, chief executive officer of the Health Center, said it sees about 18,000 patients a year at its six sites.

“We’re here for everyone,” she said. “We are for all people.”

Colleen Miller, the center’s chief operating officer, added, “We have great providers and great staff.”

Expanded services, hours

Obstetrics is the newest service being offered at the Fort Dodge location. Kruckenberg said Dr. Robert O’Connor, an obstetrician/gynecologist, began seeing patients last month.

Optometry is one of the newer services the Health Center provides. Optometry has been offered at the Fort Dodge site for a year. Thanks to a grant from the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation, optometry services became available in Mason City in December.

The Fort Dodge and Mason City locations have the machines and equipment found in an optometrist’s office. A technician uses those machines to conduct eye exams. Then the patient will meet via telehealth with an optometrist to discuss the results of the exam. Patients who need glasses will have to go to another local provider or order them online.

Last year, the Health Center received a motor home style vehicle to take its dental services on the road. A $350,000 grant from the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation helped pay for the $500,000 vehicle.

Inside the vehicle are two dental chairs and all the related equipment. It is to be staffed by a dentist and two dental assistants.

Kruckenberg said it is equipped to provide “full restorative services for teeth.”

The vehicle was delivered in April 2025, and was initially used to serve hundreds of patients at the center’s Spencer location.

Future plans call for using the mobile dental clinic at schools, nursing homes and pop-up clinics in rural areas.

During 2025, the hours during which some services are provided at the Fort Dodge site were extended. The hours for medical care at that site are now 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The hours for behavioral health care are now 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Kruckenberg said the expanded hours will make it possible for people to see their care providers before or after they go to work or school.

“We always try to grow to meet the needs of the community,” she said.

Looking ahead

The Fort Dodge location has a pharmacy, managed by Pharmacist Hannah Miller, a graduate of Southeast Valley High School in Gowrie.

Kruckenberg said one of the goals for 2026 is to expand pharmacy services to all of the other locations. She said the plan calls for filling the prescriptions in Fort Dodge and delivering the medicine to the other locations, where the patients will pick the prescriptions up.