Manatt Family Gift Helps GRMC Plan Urgent Care Services

Slated for Opening in 2014

A recent gift of $250,000 to Grinnell Regional Medical Center will help support the opening of an urgent care clinic in Poweshiek County.

This major donation was made by Manatts, Inc., of Brooklyn and the Manatt family. The support from the Manatt family has allowed GRMC to renovate the first floor of the Ahrens Medical Arts Building into an easily accessible urgent care clinic for convenient care.

In recognition of the gift, the clinic will be called “Manatt Family Urgent Care.”

 “The Manatt family’s gift to GRMC is allowing us to bring a much needed line of service to our patients. In addition, it has moved us closer to our fundraising goal for continued improvements and services to our community,” says Todd C. Linden, GRMC president and CEO. “We are grateful and very excited. The new clinic will ultimately enhance the entire patient experience.”

Once opened, the clinic will offer urgent care and after-hours care for non-emergency situations. Providers in the clinic will treat individuals with minor illnesses and injuries such as sore throats, colds, simple cuts, and ear infections. The clinic will also provide occupational medicine services and wound treatment. The occupational medicine and wound treatment programs are already seeing patients in the new area. The urgent care component of the clinic will open in February/March 2014.

One reason the Manatt family made this gift is because family members see a need for quality healthcare being available outside normal business hours.

“The idea of this clinic is dear to us because our employees work long, odd hours.  We want to make sure there is a facility available to them to get the care they need during off-business hours,” says Brian Manatt, president of Manatt’s, Inc., a diversified construction company specializing in asphalt paving, concrete paving, and ready-mix concrete.

“In our industry, the hours our employees put in don’t always allow them to get to a physician during normal business hours. It is hard for them to find time to take care of themselves.  This clinic will help become a solution to that problem,” he says.

In helping to provide healthcare access for their employees, the Manatt family also brings access and affordability to all area residents. According to national estimates, about 20 percent of all emergency department visits can be effectively treated in a clinic like this one.

“We are excited to partner with GRMC on this project to provide much needed services for after hours and urgent care,” says Adam Manatt, vice-president at Manatt’s, Inc.

Comprised of three examination rooms and a small laboratory area, the clinic is located in the Ahrens Medical Arts Building at GRMC and will offer services from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. With increased use, the long-term goal is to expand hours later into the evening and on Sundays.

“We are so grateful to the Manatt family for helping us create a top-notch urgent care clinic,” says Dan Agnew, GRMC board member and co-chair of GRMC’s Moving at the Speed of Life campaign. “This significant gift, along with the generosity of other donors, allows us to deliver the right care, in the right place, at the right time. By investing in GRMC, the Manatt family is investing in the health of the community and the region.”

Through its Moving at the Speed of Life campaign, GRMC is reimagining and creating facilities to increase access to high quality care and ensure that it is always responsive to patients needs. The campaign’s priorities include efforts to:

• Modernize the emergency department.
• Create an urgent care clinic.
• Enhance chemotherapy services.
• Purchase state-of-the-art robotic surgery equipment and a new CT scanner.
• Renovate Postels Community Health Park to accommodate a growing wellness program.
• Establish an endowment to help subsidize operating costs for the Grinnell Regional Mental Health Center.

The total cost to achieve these seven initiatives is $7.5 million. Although still very early in its efforts, campaign commitments to date have allowed the medical center to initiate a new chemotherapy suite, purchase a daVinci® Robotics Surgical System, and create the urgent care clinic. About $5 million is still needed to fund all the projects, with significant fund-raising efforts planned in the coming months. For more information, contact Denise Lamphier, GRMC director of communications and development, at 641-236-2589 or dlamphier@grmc.us.