Rural Iowa hospital pitches to Des Moines residents

In an attempt to reverse the trend of rural residents traveling long distances to seek medical care in cities, a critical-access hospital in northern Iowa is trying to draw patients 90 miles from Des Moines to use its new operating rooms for weight-loss surgery, Tony Leys reports for The Des Moines Register. "The Iowa Specialty Hospital in Belmond (Wikipedia map) is partnering with a Des Moines surgeon to provide the operations, which reduce the size of patients’ stomachs so they can’t eat as much."

"The new arrangement represents a rare effort by a rural hospital to compete directly for business with big-city counterparts," Leys writes. "Most Des Moines-area residents wanting bariatric surgery go to Iowa Methodist Medical Center or to Mercy Medical Center." Dr. Todd Eibes, a former employee of Iowa Methodist, now runs a clinic in West Des Moines, Leys writes. While he and his staff see patients at that facility, surgeries will be performed in Belmond, where patients will on average spend two days in the hospital. Eibes said he was impressed with the hospital's high patient satisfaction surveys and its inviting and modern setting. He told Leys, “That’s the kind of thing our patients are looking for. They don’t want to get lost in a huge system.” (Read more)