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Description

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Loring Hospital in Sac City Iowa is a 25bed Critical Access Hospital serving the health care needs throughout Sac County and bordering Iowa counties

The following services are available at Loring Hospital Cardiac Rehab Emergency Services Loring Family Hospice Home Health Care Laboratory Nursing Services Pharmacy Pulmonary Rehab Outpatient Services Radiology Services Physical Therapy and Rehab Surgical Services and an independent senior living facility

Outpatient specialty clinics include cardiology general surgery nephrology orthopeadics sports medicine oncology physiatry podiatry and urology

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History

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Loring Hospital History
Early in the 1900s the local Commercial Club began exploring the possibility of getting a hospital for Sac City Mr Frank W Loring was a member of the committee While viewing one of the proposed sites he informed the committee that he and Mrs Loring had been planning to leave most of their estate for the building and endowing of a hospital for Sac City They were always interested in the operation of smaller hospitals and investigated many things relative to their management They realized that many were unsuccessful because they were not properly endowed after they had been built

Mr Loring wanted to follow in his fathers footsteps and study medicine but he followed his fathers advice and went into the dry goods business He went on to become one of Sac Citys most prominent businessmen Mr and Mrs Loring were people who never experienced want but they were always considerate of others especially those in need They helped provide for many in distress Any worthy cause was supported by these two fine people The building of a hospital enabled them to further their interest in medicine and make a significant contribution to the community

Although numerous suggestions had been made during the years that followed in regards to building a community hospital those who knew of Mr and Mrs Lorings plan bypassed these suggestions in order that their plan would eventually be carried out

Mr Loring aimed to have a hospital which would be fully approved by the American Medical Association so that it would be liberally patronized by members of the medical profession and to have a substantial endowment fund established and devoted to the support and maintenance of the hospital He requested that Charles Brynestom AT Brownell and Miss Jennie Fickes be appointed to execute the trust After the will had been probated the Trustees took over in 1941 and worked diligently to liquidate some of the assets and invest others in order to establish a working capital The present site was purchased and included a large frame house which opened under the name of Loring Hospital in 1942 primarily as a maternity house Mr Lorings only regret in life was that he did not take up the study of medicine as he had hoped to do This desire was never realized but his contribution to the field of medicine was close to becoming a reality a hospital for the residents of Sac County

In 1947 because of ill health and absence from Sac City on many occasions Mr Brownell resigned from the board Mr AG Redman was appointed to replace him but he too was out of town a great deal In 1948 his resignation was received and the court appointed Mr HE Theissen

The trustees continued to work hard to follow through on the dreams of Mr and Mrs Loring Another individual Dr CD Gibson was instrumental in fundraising and promoting the building of the hospital Generous donations from Sac County residents were added to the estate funds and construction of the hospital began in 1948 by McCorkle Construction Company Total cost of the project including furnishing was just over 300000

The new 32 bed Loring Hospital held its open house on Sunday August 20 1950 Lorings first patient to be admitted was Anna Wickershiem of Sac City on September 22 1950 Catherine Glanz RN was the first administrator

In December 1965 architectural sketches of a 33 bed addition to Loring Hospital were revealed to the public Aided by many volunteers a successful financial drive was conducted with the donations being added to the Loring Trust This campaign made possible the signing of contracts on April 1966 for the new hospital addition

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new addition were held on Sunday May 1 1966 Turning the first spade of earth were Carl Steward Chariman of the Board and Dr Gene Michel Chief of Staff The new addition was built by Paul McCorkle Construction Company of Sac City and took about one year to complete The cost of the construction phase was approximately 520000 plus furnishings

On July 18 1967 patients were transferred from the old facility to the new addition and remodeling started to convert the old unit into an extended care unit Loring Care Center admitted its first resident on January 18 1968

In 1994 Loring Hospital entered into a management agreement with Trinity Regional Hospital in Fort Dodge for the purpose of continuity of management This also provided Loring Hospital with an entry into a large network of rural health facilities This allowed for the sharing of expertise in management purchasing and recruiting medical personnel

In 1996 Loring Hospital launched a capital fund drive to build an outpatient clinic to connect the hospital with Medcial Associates PPMC After carefully studying all the options including renovation of the existing facility the most efficient patient convenient and costeffective option was to construct a new outpatient facility The project was designed and built by Davis Design of Storm Lake A 400000 USDA Rural Teleeducation grant made possible the installation of the Iowa Communications Network ICN and the Iowa Central Community College Television NetworkICTN in our conference and education room The total overall cost of the project was 18 million dollars

The new outpatient facility began seeing patients in September 1998 The center provides a means to attract top quality physicians and medical specialists It also provides the community with more convenient and integrated options of service reducing the need to travel for certain medical treatments The facility contains a new physical therapy area education room cardiopulmonary rehab and five treatment rooms for outpatient and chemotherapy services

Many community hospitals in rural Iowa are supported by county or city funds generated by local taxes Loring Hospital receives no funds from tax levies and is supported strictly from funds generated from its ongoing business enterprises and by the generosity of the citizens it serves Previous support for expansions equipment and other needs has come from individual donations from the Frank Loring Trust the Grace Noble Trust the Ora and Eva Greer Estate and other numerous bequests and donations

Loring Hospital now does business as a 501c 3 nonprofit corporation The Loring Trust continues as the fund raising entity for the benefit of the hospital The Loring Foundation was created as a separate nonprofit organization to own and operate Oak Terrace Estates a senior citizens independent living facility