For a large portion of the year, staff could be found navigating a maze of construction as CHC expanded and redesigned. By the end of 2021, most administrative offices had been moved into the basement of the building, the dental and behavioral health clinics were in the process of expanding, and an in-house pharmacy was under construction.

“Construction is slated to be done at the end of March,” said Renae Kruckenberg, CEO of Community Health Center. “When that gets completed, that’ll give us four additional dental operatories. It’ll give us four additional behavioral health rooms to be used for either prescribing providers or for therapists, and then in our lower level, it gives us a group therapy room as well as administrative offices.”

Kruckenberg said over the summer of 2021, the state changed the dental program for children, causing the CHC to have an increase in demand for dental services. In addition, Kruckenberg said the stresses of a global pandemic have taken a toll on people’s mental health.

“We’ve seen an increase in the amount of mental health services that we’ve needed in the clinics, therefore, we want to make sure that we’re expanding to meet the needs of the community in the population that we serve,” she said.

-Messenger photo by Michaela Frerichs
This area of expansion will allow Fort Dodge’s Community Health Center to expand their dental clinic by four chairs, for a total of 12, in order to serve more patients.

The expansion will also include an in-house pharmacy.

“We hired a pharmacist to get it started and going so that as soon as the space is done, we’ll be able to open that up initially to our patients and then in the future possibly as a full retail pharmacy,” said Kruckenberg.

Regina Suhrbier, outreach coordinator for the Community Health Center, said the pharmacy will be a huge benefit to their patients.

“One of our big things at the health center is just eliminating barriers to health care. Even things like transportation are sometimes a barrier to getting that next step, which is getting that prescription to the patient. So being able to have that all under one roof is a really big benefit to our patients,” she said.

Throughout the entire year, Community Health Center was offering rapid COVID testing five days a week in addition to the regular clinic services.

In March, CHC was among 14 health centers in Iowa that received American Rescue Plan funding to support COVID-19 vaccination and services for vulnerable populations.

The Fort Dodge health center was awarded $2,616,375.

In April, the CHC hosted a 5K in partnership with Live Healthy Iowa for the first time.

“A portion of every registration goes to the Community Health Center,” Suhrbier said, “so it’s just a nice way to get outdoors and give back to the community at the same time.”

This was the first Live Healthy Iowa 5K event in Fort Dodge.

In July, Dr. Steven Schumacher joined the CHC dental team, further expanding the dental services.

In August, the Center was once again able to host its Back-to-School Block Party after being forced to cancel the event in 2020. The Block Party also celebrated National Health Center Week.

“This event is two-fold. First, we’re celebrating National Health Center Week. Bringing awareness to the Health Center, acknowledging the success of the past year with everything that’s happened with the pandemic,” said Suhrbier. “Secondly, we’re also helping kids get these school things checked off their list before school starts. The need is definitely there for all these health care services before school.”

Suhrbier said they usually serve more than 100 kids each year at the block party. Free well-child checks, immunizations, sports physicals and dental exams were all available to children in the community. The Webster County Health Department joined the party with youth Pfizer vaccines that had recently been approved. In addition, there were games, activities and resources for families from many local organizations, businesses, and clubs.

In November, the Center held its annual Coats for Kids drive in conjunction with Shimkat Motor Co. and gave out 701 coats to area children.

“We had amazing donations this year and were able to fill all of the school lists for the Fort Dodge schools, Southeast Valley, Head Start, Iowa Central and Youth Shelter Care — all who had kids in need of coats,” said Suhrbier.