In our latest podcast episode, architect Terry Glade and Floyd Valley Healthcare CEO Dustin Wright join me to navigate the complex landscape of rural healthcare design. We dive into the unique challenges faced by providers in rural areas, discussing the delicate balance between inpatient and outpatient services, financial considerations influenced by Iowa Medicare reimbursement rates, and the critical role of hiring and retaining skilled staff. Join us as we explore the strategies employed at Floyd Valley Healthcare to create a supportive culture and shape the future of rural healthcare.
Stream Now
Episode Transcript
Skyler: Welcome to another episode of laying the foundation.
Skyler: Welcome back everybody to another episode of laying the foundation podcast. I'm your host Skylar. And today I am joined with Terry Glade from our very own CMBA Sioux city office. And our wonderful guest today is Dustin Wright, who is from the Floyd Valley, uh, health care center or hospital. I'm not sure if there's a preferred term.
Dustin: Floyd Valley health care. Health care. Yep. Awesome. Fantastic. Um,
Skyler: welcome
Dustin: to the show, Dustin. Really glad to have you here. Well, thanks Skylar and Terry for the opportunity. I'm looking forward to this. First time doing a podcast. Hey, awesome. Listen to them frequently, but really just again, looking forward to the conversation.
Dustin: Yeah, and we're
Skyler: super excited to have you and today, uh, you're going to be sharing and Terry, you're going to be sharing some of your, um, extraordinary knowledge on rural healthcare and the facilities of rural healthcare, you know, what kind of stuff we're looking at as far as the progression of rural healthcare.
Skyler: It's hard to say that when you say it too many times fast. Rural health
Dustin: care. There we go.
Skyler: Um, and, and just kind of everything within that. Um, so kind of to kick things off, tell me a little bit about, I suppose, uh, what we've worked on maybe so far at Floyd Valley. And then we can kind of go from there on the challenges that, you know, rural health care faces.
Skyler: Um, And what ways that we find, uh, create solutions for those challenges.
Dustin: Yeah. Well, Terry, do you want me to kind of, I can, you kind of just, yeah, sure. Um, looking back at the timeframe of 2019, and I know Terry was involved with this even a little bit before that, when. Right when I had started as the CEO of Floyd Valley Healthcare, we were working through our master facility plan, and CMBA has done a lot of great work at Floyd Valley over the years prior to that.
Dustin: But we started to look at what does the plan look like casting out over the next five years? And through that process, we came up with, um, a couple Very significant projects, uh, one that we're getting close to wrapping up on soon and another that we're going to be kicking off on. So laid the foundation for a lot of growth in our outpatient arena.
Dustin: And we'll be moving into the inpatient side here soon too. I like how you threw in the
Terry: laying the foundation. That was a nice tie in there. But yeah, the, um, the other podcast that I did with you Skyler was about master plans and really the. The value that that brings to the healthcare organizations. And yeah, we did start that before you, you got here, but, but that always leads to, um, projects that really make sense.
Terry: And then you, then you know what you're going to do in the future too, and you don't get in the way of, of that. And it also, I think emphasizes what's, um, what's important to the organization and kind of where you see the organizations going. So you've got that plan in place. It just, it makes a huge difference.
Dustin: Yeah. And for us, when you look at the capital outlay that's been in place over those, uh, recent one that we're going to be wrapping up with our Specialty Clinic and Therapy Edition, next moving into the Maternal Health Department and Lab, it's over 20 million dollars worth of projects there. And so that's a huge deal for us.
Dustin: And not only how do we operationalize that, but how do you capital plan for that? Right. And we have come really close to hitting milestones that we put out five years ago, which I think is just amazing and a huge credit to C. M. B. A. And our construction partners have been a part of this process and journey with us.
Dustin: But it's really come to fruition in a way that I think has even exceeded expectations with myself, the board and the feedback that you get now that a couple of those spaces are open. It definitely makes every ounce of effort that we've put into that more than worth it because it's really just continue to propel the organization forward, which has been just so great to see.
Terry: Well, I think that, um, Again, that speaks to your organization as well, um, Daryl, of course, your CFO has been here for a long time, um, has a great handle on the financial side of things, but I think that really leads well into what we want to talk about as far as rural health care and, and part of that master planning process is.
Terry: What's right for your organization in your location, right? It's, it's very specific. Um, and we were talking about that even as we walked in. What's important to Lamars, Iowa, as opposed to. somewhere else, Orange City or some other
Dustin: town. Yeah, absolutely. And you look at our community specifically and some of the work that's happened over the past handful of years has definitely been geared towards the outpatient arena, right?
Dustin: 86 percent of our book of business now happens in what is considered an outpatient visit. The hospital core component of acute visits will always be a very important aspect of the community to keep care local. But the reality it is insurance payers. are not paying for that or approving it like they have in the past.
Dustin: So that's something that is even outside of our hands. Right. Getting back to what was specific for our community as we continue to see growth in Lamar's continuing to pick up market share. It has been a major focus to ensure that we can get specialty providers that are not directly employed by Floyd Valley into our community.
Dustin: And that's important for a couple of reasons. One, uh, historically we're thinking about a geriatric population that does not want to drive. And even Sioux city is only 25, 30 miles away, but it still is a huge difference when, and I'll kind of even smile a little bit and we're talking with our patients.
Dustin: Well, I don't want to drive into Sioux city for us, the three of us saying here, that's not a big deal. But. For patients that are not used to that being able to stay local and having a family member drive you to your appointment is a huge win for us. And for us, the growth that we've seen across a number of different specialties, uh, primarily within orthopedics, our general surgery department continues to see growth.
Dustin: Um, and then cardiology and the list just continues to go down the line. We added in a neurology practice. We didn't have space to do that. And we outgrew that a long time ago, even before we started this master facility plan. One of the examples I can give as part of this, um, within orthopedics specifically, we're now seeing close to 70 patients each clinic session that that team is here in the space that we were in prior.
Dustin: It was common to have a wait time and that was not due to Floyd Valley. Um, our team, our orthopedic team, it was just, we simply didn't have the space to accommodate that. Now that we're in our new specialty clinic that C. M. B. A. Help design and get up and going for us. Uh, the wait time is literally down to zero minutes.
Dustin: We've doubled the occupancy space that they have for exam rooms. They're working together and a core pod that's efficient. And we've already had several patient comments saying that we're here for return visits that had been in the prior space saying this is unbelievable. Right? So now we've increased the patient satisfaction, provider satisfaction.
Dustin: That team is coming here more. frequently now because, um, they're busier and it's a first class space for them to be working in. And so that just continues to trickle through. Um, but specifically back to the main question of what was important for our community. It was continuing to grow our outpatient footprint so that we could keep up with the growth that we had seen internally.
Dustin: Now, the other organizations, maybe they're focusing on a new emergency department that we just, we've done some of that work already. So again, um, I really appreciate the commentary that one master facility plan and the amount that you've probably been a part of, they're probably all vastly different.
Dustin: But point being is that it's provided a good strategic direction for us to help our organization grow and continue to be successful.
Terry: One, the one thing that has been common in the master plans is therapy and again, discussions about, well, in rural healthcare, you got to keep the doors open, obviously. I mean, the first task is taking care of the patients in your staff, obviously, but you still got to keep the doors open.
Terry: And, and I know the discussions years ago used to be, uh, Medicare reimbursement rates in Iowa were so low and, and. Um, other discussions along those lines, but it now it's those outpatient services that are the, the payers. And I would say the common thread in a lot of our master plans is the therapies, um, OT, uh, PT and speech language pathology, which you have all of, and that was the upper floor of that.
Terry: Clinic that we just, uh, clinic project we just finished.
Dustin: Yeah, it's interesting to hear you say that because you see that across the Iowa Hospital Association statistics that therapies are growing. And it's great that other organizations can take advantage of that as well. So we, we've now doubled the size of our therapy department and we're already taking advantage of that.
Dustin: Uh, year after year. Over the past three years, we've seen about 30% growth. So that is our fastest growing department and at Floyd Valley Healthcare right now. And for us to be able to continue to keep up with that, we didn't have the space to accommodate that volume. Well now we've added five additional PT treatment rooms.
Dustin: We are going to co-locate our, um, speech language. speech language pathologist all in one area. And it's already going to create synergies for those patients that are using multiple specialty within that department. Now they're all in one area. I think that's going to be a huge win for us. So it really was a no brainer for us when we were looking at this, that the return on investment for us was Easy to identify and when we're looking at financial viability, to your point, Terry, that is a huge part of our success and I think, um, just.
Dustin: The room to grow will continue to be there. And again, payers are looking to try to keep people out of the hospital so when we can do additional therapy. And a lot of that now, you have to go through a certain amount of therapy sessions before you can get approved for surgery. So there's just so much that's changed over the past several years that it was hard to predict what that would look like.
Dustin: But I think the writing's on the wall that outpatient growth will be critical. I think at any organization, regardless how many zeros are in your budget. Right. And I, I remember
Terry: in our planning, we started out with a, that was just a single story addition with a potential empty second floor shelf space and our discussions, well, your decisions led you to.
Terry: Putting therapy up there instead. And that was
Dustin: what a great decision. Yeah, it was. And at that point in time, I remember there was just so many dynamics when we were in the midst of COVID. Um, inflation was starting to take off in part of just seeing what our volume projections were. And what the cost of not doing that project and fishing that space off.
Dustin: It was significant. So to delay that, and I think it's held true that I think hopefully we're seeing a little bit of a tampering and construction costs now, but when we made that decision to do it then versus even three to five years from now, I'm sure we're saving money in the long run on that.
Terry: Yeah.
Terry: And that's a tribute to your direction and the board's, um, trust in your. Right. Decisions also. And the nice thing again about the master plan is then when we moved therapy out of certain areas, uh, that gave us room for some other priorities that you.
Dustin: That you have. Yeah. And when we started to look at that as a multi phase project, it was fun to go through that because you could just see the building blocks start to fall into place of what need to happen.
Dustin: When we did that, it freed up internal space to look at our next upcoming project and the maternal health department. We're going to be moving into what was the old operating room space. And then the lab will be doubling in size because it'll move into the old OB space. So it's just the sequential process that, uh, we had to get step one done before we could get to step four.
Dustin: But again, for us to reinvest into that is really a huge component. And OB is, is interesting in of itself. There's only 22 critical access hospitals in the state of Iowa. There's, I believe, 88 in total that are, um, Eight out of the 88, only 22 are still, um, have OB services. So for us to be able to reinvest that kind of capital into that department, where a lot are shrinking or closing is really a testament to our organization, the high quality that's provided our provider team that obviously I'm probably a little bit biased, but second to none.
Dustin: And we think that that is absolutely critical for the longterm vitality of Floyd Valley Healthcare, that we're going to be in the business of life begins at Floyd Valley Health Care. And we want to be in the delivery service. And I think everything thing just trickles down from that. And for us, it's just a very exciting time.
Dustin: And again, when we thought about that five years ago, again, what's hard to see it come to fruition. But here we are, we're going to be a couple of months away from hopefully getting that project approved. Um, and then we'll start construction in that space soon. Yeah. Well,
Terry: and, and just speaking with your staff, um, it's clear that there, I mean, They're so knowledgeable about the, the processes and they were so involved in, in designing those rooms, the LDRPs and, um, it's going to be a great space because of it for patients, for families, um, and it, it sounds like they were very thoughtful about how, you know, even the number
Dustin: of rooms, you
Terry: know, what, what made sense and having the, the triage room and, and then, you know, one room, dedicated delivery and then other LDRPs.
Terry: It was, it was very well thought out.
Dustin: Attention architecture professionals. Are you looking for an employment opportunity that will provide you with a wonderful work culture and a competitive pay rate? Look no further than CMBA Architects. Our firm offers flexible scheduling, a casual dress code, and a great work environment that will help you collaborate and create.
Dustin: Plus, who doesn't love having Fridays off? To
Skyler: learn more about our available positions, visit the careers page at cmbaarchitects. com and apply to join the CMBA
Dustin: team. It's created a huge amount of excitement within the organization and I would just add on top of that, the campaign slogan was families begin at Floyd Valley Health Care.
Dustin: So we've been in the community, our goal was to get to a million dollars on our capital campaign and within the first two and a half months we surpassed nine hundred thousand dollars. And I'd anticipate by the middle part of January will be north of a million already. And the feedback in the community has been amazing.
Dustin: Um, either you have delivered at Floyd Valley, you know, someone that has, and it has been a resounding feedback that this project needs to happen. So I anticipate the growth that we'll see come out of this is just going to be phenomenal. And again, our quality outcomes and our provider team is phenomenal, but the space just did not match up to what we see from a competitive nature in our market.
Dustin: And that's one area that amongst many that CMBA has done just a great job in helping us navigate and that it's going to really have an impact in the reality of it is right now in a competitive market, people make decisions off of that. Families make choices on how does the department look, how does it.
Dustin: feel, do we get that home that doesn't feel so much I think we did a great jo into the design of this u really excited to start w this time next year, hope
Skyler: Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned, um, you know, obviously the clients coming in and enjoying the space and how that can be such a big piece of them choosing to come here as opposed to somewhere else. Right? Um, what about with staff members as
Dustin: well? Oh, absolutely. And I would say that in the current market that that is as important because obviously regardless of what I say continually, whether it's with our board, our senior leadership team, any manager within the organization, we can put up new buildings all day long, but unless we have an amazing committed team to staff it and really create that engagement with our consumers, our patients, families, it doesn't.
Dustin: Matter, right? And the new space is a huge piece of that. There's excitement to be in that. I think it helps from a recruitment standpoint. Oh yeah. And in today's market retention, which is even more critical given how competitive the labor shortage and workforce is when we're investing in our facilities.
Dustin: I think it's an investment into our team as well, because who doesn't take pride in working in a brand new space? There's a lot that goes into that and a lot of those individuals, uh, have helped, especially in the old. OB and lab part of the project and even in therapy as well, they designed that space.
Dustin: So there is a lot of ownership in that, and they want that to be as successful just as much as anyone else. So I think that's a great point, Skylar, that it is, it's critical. Yeah,
Skyler: absolutely. And I think that. You know, that's definitely been a part of our master planning process is going in and talking to the staff and the people that are using those facilities and the people that will be working in those facilities and saying, what do you foresee, or what would you want to see within your space and making that part of the feedback that we take back and then we put into the spaces that we design.
Terry: Yeah. And we always tell people during the master plan process, people, a lot of times have been so constricted by budget. It's hard for them to even think of what could be sometimes. So we encourage them to dream big, and we can always scale it back if we need to. Um, but that, uh, thinking of the lab and, uh, the staff, we did that mock up, um, because the staff, and again, the reality of a rural health care, and your, uh, the number of staff that you have during the day versus the number of staff you have at night.
Terry: That had to be taken into consideration and the lab had to be designed So that it could be run by one person at night. And so we actually did a mock up with the staff of the space that they could move around and see just exactly how it might work for them and made some changes Because of
Dustin: it. Yeah, and again, I think CMBA has done a really, just a great job with making that process inclusive and people feeling okay to ask questions.
Dustin: Oh, sure. And I think this is where I have to give Adam Wheelock a plug. Yes. Adam does. Absolutely. Such a great job in helping design those spaces and it can crack some appropriate jokes and make wind up scenarios in a great way that people are just so comfortable bringing forward suggestions and ideas.
Dustin: And when we got into that lab process, a three P design where we had everyone. partake in that every lab member had at least an hour in that space going through. And when we looked at the renderings and when we've talked to people in the community about that, it may look nice on that, but not realizing that every piece of equipment every counter, every shelf was thought about in that space.
Dustin: And I thought that was really amazing and how that came together and the time that it took to do that. But again, when we've got, when we're flexing up from anywhere from 10 folks working in a space down to one, it's really going to be functional and create a much better environment. And talk about an area that's very hard to recruit in.
Dustin: is extremely, extremely d buy in for those individu again. Hopefully that's a that they feel ownership And I'm sure
Skyler: that's kind of a major challenge as well when it comes to rural health care is finding those sort of specialty positions that are really hard to Gather from maybe the immediate community and so finding ways to bring them in from whether they're you know College graduates or from outside and bring them in.
Skyler: I mean, that's kind of definitely a community Uh, effort to some extent, you know, you want to be in a place that, you know, obviously has a lot of those opportunities and interests that bring in those people. But I could see that being, you know, for sure, one of the challenges
Dustin: for rural health care.
Dustin: Absolutely. And I think I would just add through the work that I'm a part of with Iowa Hospital Association that right now within the state, even the Des Moines metro area, the largest populated parts of our state, all the way through a community of maybe 1, 500 people where some of the smallest critical access hospitals lie right now.
Dustin: Some of the struggles are the same regardless of the size of the organization, and it's regarding recruitment and retention strategies. That will be the number one theme that you'll hear across every organization. Just the market that we're in right now.
Terry: Yep. Well, and just that you mentioned, you have an interview right after this.
Terry: I mean, you're, it's
Dustin: just constant. It is. Yeah. And especially in some of those higher licensed professional areas. And the thing that's interesting, you look at the national statistics of where this is going. Even three to five years from now. I don't think that stops. There is just not enough educational opportunities within the colleges, educators, to be able to meet that pipeline of supply for those individuals in the future compared to what the workforce need is going to be.
Dustin: Um, so it's really something that. I specifically have just gotten comfortable with that. It's the reality that we live in. How can we be innovative and how we staff certain departments and a lot of the retention type things that we do in regards to student debt repayment. Uh, looking at a number of educational opportunities.
Dustin: We've expanded that significantly. One, because I think it's the right thing to do. But two, I think that's just going to be common platform now to be able to get into the early stage conversations and the recruitment standpoint, it's just become mandatory that you're providing those types of benefits.
Dustin: Absolutely. And
Skyler: I'm sure company
Dustin: culture as well, too. Oh, absolutely. And I think that really highlights the retention piece of it, that. One of the things that, um, I heard one of our physicians say recently that really hit home with me that I'm extremely proud of with our team at Floyd Valley Health Care is, is that does the organization have a soul and how do we go about operating on a day to day basis?
Dustin: And when I heard that I one, it was just very eye opening because I really hadn't thought about it in that terms. But for that individual to say that and that's how they feel here, it means a lot. And At the heart of what we do, do you have a culture where people feel respected, that they not only want to come to work to each day, but feel valued and be a part of?
Dustin: Is there a sense of high humility where we're working together as a team and we're in it for the right reason? And it, it's, you know, it's hard to pinpoint the specific things that lead to that, but that's something that outside of, Direct patient safety is absolutely my number one priority, making sure that we have a culture that individuals not only want to join, but continue to be a part of and grow and we just continue to foster that.
Dustin: And I think that has shown through our retention rates that we have throughout the organization, uh, when we're recruiting individuals, there's a certain feel. Impulse within the organization, you know, it's kind of hard to pinpoint, but I think it's there based off the feedback that we're getting when individuals feel that, and they say they want to be a part of our organization.
Dustin: And not that we don't have things to work on because I think everyone does, but there are some areas that we've been really successful in. And I think that's been a huge part of our success over time as well. Yeah,
Terry: I would, I'd say just the years I've been working here, everybody, you can just, you can feel it.
Terry: It comes from the top, honestly, um, Mike, your predecessor and you and people like Daryl, and Tera's been amazing, and even Teresa at your front desk, it's a, it's a level of quality that people feel, but it's a, it's a commitment. It's a commitment to excellence. And every, every department we've worked with, your staff is just so dedicated to doing.
Terry: Their best job. It's, it's, you can just feel it.
Dustin: You can feel it. Yeah, that's heartwarming. Thanks for sharing that. And again, I, I believe I feel that, but it's always good to get a pulse of what some of our key stakeholders because CMBA's been in this building a lot over the past handful of years. So I would absolutely trust that kind of validation.
Dustin: So thanks for saying that, Terry. We appreciate that. There's,
Terry: there's no question. And that's, and I think the last board meeting I said. You know, make sure you keep these people around because it's, I mean, you can tell that they are committed and, and that's part of the success. Absolutely. And again, that's, that's what you need in this.
Terry: It's to be a rural healthcare provider.
Skyler: Now, Dustin, you mentioned, you know, the,
Dustin: um, the importance of
Skyler: outpatient, you know, moving forward, you mentioned, you know, where you kind of see things going as far as, um, sort of employee retention and, and expect it and what you expect to kind of come from that. What else do you foresee for, for rural healthcare?
Dustin: And again, I think the biggest component that we've seen in our community outside the walls of our organization, the. Population statistics in the state of Iowa continue to see an out migration trend from our rural communities. And by rural, in my mind, this is not based on any type of published literature by any means.
Dustin: I'm thinking about communities of 30, 000 or less, and that encompasses a, a lot of the healthcare facilities, vast majority within the state of Iowa specifically, and probably upper Midwest as well, and one component that I believe. Floyd Valley in conjunction with the city of Lamar's has done well, is that there's a growth mindset?
Dustin: And what are we doing to try to grow the local business even outside of health care? And what are we doing to bring more individuals to our community that not only one to work here, but how do you get them to live here? How do you get them into our education system really tied into a point where we can reverse that trend of not seeing population decline, but population growth.
Dustin: And there's been a lot of work done on that front and Floyd Valley absolutely participates in that. Right. And I think there's a lot of natural progression that happens from that. point in time. Um, but o of it, I would say, uh, p is another huge piece of to continue um, at a stat level, ensure that we're that are interested.
Dustin: Um, tracks for physicians tha in rural locations. We ha What can we do from a loan forgiveness standpoint if those individuals are willing to come out and work in smaller communities for a period of time? And the hope being that if you can get a foot started, yeah, that they might want to start a family if they don't already have one in a community, and that can really springboard to a longterm relationship.
Dustin: And you've got to have providers to be able to keep the core part of your operations going. And we've been fortunate to do that here. Um, but again, I think that's going to be a real critical piece is that the physician Labor shortage that's projected in the future. We've got to try to start reversing some of those trends.
Dustin: If rural locations are going to be successful. Definitely. And it's
Skyler: exciting to see, you know, all these different ways that you guys are looking at for sort of the reinvestment of both staff and the community, as you mentioned before. Yeah. Um, and just How important that is, obviously
Dustin: right in a lot of the work that we've done, um, in partnership with CMBA on the facility side of it, that helps in recruitment.
Dustin: We highlight a little bit about that, but on the provider side of it, that makes a huge difference as well. And when they see that investment into the organization, that it's forward thinking that plays a huge part in those conversations and trying to get those providers signed to come to your organization.
Dustin: Absolutely.
Terry: Absolutely. So I'll just kind of throw this out there. You're you've been here since 2019.
Dustin: Yeah. Coming up. I hit the five year mark in December. Yeah.
Terry: So, so what? As a relative newcomer to Lamar's, then what, what do you see? I mean, how do you, how do you see Lamar's and what does that mean for you and your young family?
Dustin: Yeah, I think it's when we're out recruiting, the core components that will come forward is what does the housing market look like? What does the school district entail, especially, um, for those individuals that place a high emphasis on education? That's always one of the first questions that comes forward.
Dustin: And for us personally, our family is what fun activities do you have to do in the community? What are the trail systems look like? I try to, or the golf courses, the golf courses, you know, that's a huge deal for, you know, that's a huge deal for me. And so those opportunities are here. And I kind of say there, it's very easy to live here.
Dustin: You're getting from one side of the town to the next and less than 15 minutes from a week to week basis, you've got all the major components you need to live a comfortable life. And probably a unique thing about Lamar's is that there's not something here and we want to buzz down to Sioux city. That's a 30 minute drive.
Dustin: Um, so we've got that going for it. But there's a lot of good feedback on that, that it's safe community to live in. And there's just a lot of positive momentum on that. And again, um, as something as a native of Iowa from a rural community, um, it, it was easy for me to adjust into and an area that it makes it feel like home.
Dustin: Yeah. Well, and I say
Skyler: this a lot, especially when we have guests on, but I'm sure between the two of you and your, you know, phenomenal expertise within rural health care, we could, we could talk all day about rural health care and just the health care sector and everything within it. Um, but we do have to close.
Skyler: I know you, Dustin, you've got something that you've got to do here in a little bit. So, um, is there anything specific that we haven't talked about yet that we really want to make sure it gets brought up before we? Kind of close this episode out. Would you,
Terry: I don't know what you think about behavioral health.
Dustin: I know that's, yeah, that's a huge component. So within our community health plan or excuse me, community health needs assessment, uh, over the past, uh, Two frameworks that we've put forward in the community that has been towards the top. Uh, we've implemented a program called Senior Life Solutions that is specific towards our Medicare population.
Dustin: That is an outpatient mental health therapy program. Grief loss, dealing with the day to day, um, concerns that come forward, and aging. That program continues to stay very busy. Um, But also specifically, what are we doing to try to help push services into the community before we run into a crisis type scenario where somebody is in our emergency department?
Dustin: Um, we've been fortunate that there's some very strong community partners in Lamars that focus 100 percent on behavioral health needs. And so we've tried to partner with those, uh, Entities in a larger way, but I think the need for that will continue to exponentially grow. Unfortunately, in some instances, and we're starting to talk about what we need to do to be on the provider front in that area.
Dustin: And so I think there's going to be a lot of change in that, um, uh, that part of healthcare coming very soon.
Terry: Sure. Yep. That's another important piece that we find in a lot of master planning also. Sure. Um, but it's, uh, you guys are well positioned, um, I think to, to take care of that again. Like you say, you've got the senior life solutions and if you're already thinking about it as a community, that's, that's awesome.
Terry: That's I just think, I just see the Mars is this vibrant, how many was the population right at 11,
Dustin: 000 right now, I think plus or minus, but yeah, I
Terry: mean, just, uh, what a great community. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and
Skyler: it's just, it's, I mean, my wife and I, we come down here probably, you know, a couple of times during the summer for some sort of event or, you know, parade or whatever the case.
Skyler: So it is, it is definitely exciting to see the growth of, of Lamar's Iowa and obviously. You know, your health care facility is, is a huge, huge part of that. So yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the biggest areas to emphasize on as far as the benefits of living in the Mars is all the ice cream. I was going
Dustin: to say, I just want to say you got the ice cream home to Wells Blue bunny, a major employer and contributor to the community, but there's never a shortage of ice cream around.
Dustin: I
Skyler: mean, even just right out front, you've got the statue for the ice cream
Terry: cone. So, and they, and I'm sure there's, um, they provide a lot of patients
Dustin: for you. Yeah. Yeah. I, there are again, a significant employer in the community and another growth mindset business that they continue to grow when I don't foresee that stopping anytime soon.
Dustin: They continue to have year after year record sales. So people, there must be enough money out there. Continue to support buying ice cream and enjoying that, but it's kind of a fun fact of the community for sure. Absolutely. Awesome.
Terry: Yep. People can always.
Skyler: Well, fantastic. Well, Dustin, thank you so much for, for being on the show for sharing
Dustin: some incredible expertise.
Dustin: My pleasure. Thanks for the invite and thanks to CMBA for being such great partners of the organization. We always appreciate the support and input and everything you've done for us. So thank you. Well, we
Terry: love working with you guys. It's been a great. Great partnership. So awesome.
Skyler: And thank you, Terry, of course, for, for being on the show.
Skyler: It's always fun getting, getting more episodes with your name on them, which is always exciting. So
Terry: great job. Awesome.
Dustin: So,
Skyler: and of course, thank you for listening. This has been another episode of laying the foundation. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about CMBA architects, you can head over to our website at cmbaarchitects.
Skyler: com. Uh, see some of the project highlight photos that we take, including those of the Floyd Valley healthcare facility. And of course you can also follow us on social media, whether that be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn, and don't forget to subscribe to laying the foundation podcast. So you never miss a new episode coming out.
Skyler: You can do that on Spotify, iTunes, apple podcasts, and everywhere else that podcasts can be streamed. Once again, my name is Skylar and this has been another episode of laying the foundation.
Tags:
January 11, 2024