Lucas County Health Center

History

Lucas County has a rich heritage of quality healthcare beginning with the arrival of two brothersWilliam D Waynick M D and Wyatt W Waynick M D in June 1848 From those pioneering family doctors to Lucas Countys first private hospital operated by Dr Albert Yocom to the cutting edge medical teams of the 21st Century residents have long reaped the benefits of a strong tradition of healthcare excellence Lucas County Health Center is the most recent example of Lucas County residents commitment to providing quality healthcare locally

In 1956 a group of citizens interested in developing a county hospital gathered 200 signatures in support of the project and placed the matter in the hands of the Lucas County Board of Supervisors A public vote Nov 6 1956 showed the public was firmly behind constructing a county hospital The supervisors issued 200000 in bonds to begin the process The supervisors also applied for and received an 180000 HillBurton federal grant

The Lucas County Memorial Hospital Foundation formed and organized a drive to raise matching funds to comply with the HillBurton requirements Foundation members Judge Harold Levis John Woodman F B Ryan and John Baldridge were able to raise 170000 in private funds

The hospitals founding fathers organized when its first Board of Trustees meeting convened The first trustees Delbert James Arthur Keller Oliver Kent Fred Curtis Dean Ferguson Earl Wright and Oran Garrett met to decide how to pursue the construction of a modern hospital in Chariton Months of attention to the smallest detail produced a hospital plan including 12 baby beds and a thoroughly modern surgical facility

Construction on what would become Lucas County Memorial Hospital began in the fall of 1959 A Grand Opening was held May 1 1961 to announce the communitys modern medical facility was open for business

The hospital was so well used by area residents that a 48bed addition was constructed in 1969 A twounit ambulance service was added in 1970 To meet the growing needs of Lucas County residents a fourbed intensive care unit was equipped in 1971 with the latest technology

As healthcare needs continued to evolve the Lucas County Memorial Hospital Board of Directors kept pace In 1985 Northridge Living Center was developed to meet the growing need for residential facilities for the elderly

The 1990s brought more changes to the hospital including a name change Lucas County Memorial Hospital was renamed Lucas County Health Center A spacious medical office building was added to the north side of the building a project that included the construction of an airy atrium entrance to the Health Center

The LCHC Mammography Center began offering onsite mammography every weekday in 1999 Neal Sokol D O joined the LCHC staff in 1999 as general surgeon before opening his own practice Surgical Clinic of Southern Iowa PC on Court Avenue in Chariton two years later Nearly 1000 surgeries were performed from 1999 to 2000 Procedures performed by Dr Sokol and other visiting physicians now include general surgeries ear nose and throat oncology podiatric orthopedic cataract removal and many others
Other LCHC departments include physical occupational and speech therapies athletic training services counseling services womens health services and obstetrics LCHC also has a comprehensive laboratory and full radiology services with the latest technology offered through CT digital mammography and mobile MRI The Health Center also offers sleep studies cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation infusion therapies diabetes education and wound healing treatment LCHC owns and operates Humeston Medical Clinic in Humeston Iowa which has two providers Sharon Squibb CNM and Julie Harvey ARNP Harvey provides health services for the entire family Squibb provides health services for women of all ages including prenatal obstetric and postnatal care Squibb delivers babies at LCHC in the stateoftheart labor and delivery suites

The Lucas County Health Center Foundation purchased in 2001 the former corporate headquarters of HyVee Inc The purchase was made possible through a donation from The Vredenburg Foundation with support from HyVee Inc Located on Osceola Avenue in Chariton the building encompasses 55000square feet on two stories A large portion of the second story was remodeled to house LCHCs Kids Life Discovery Center and Discovery Preschool Other parts of the building are leased to various tenants In December 2008 ownership of the Vredenburg Center transferred to the Lucas County Health Center By 2009 Kids Life Discovery Center had created a Nature Explore Classroom for playground use The special space was recognized by the National Arbor Day Foundation

Also in 2009 LCHC expanded physician access through its Emergency Department by establishing a close working relationship with Docs Who Care a physician group providing emergency medicine services In early 2010 LCHCs new obstetrics wing offered an expansion of labor and delivery services to area families The beautifully appointed renovation includes two luxurious whirlpool suites as well as stateoftheart technology for the delivery of each baby The birth experience at LCHC is very private and personal with the physicians and obstetric nurses focused entirely on the mother and child

LCHC works closely with the physicians of Chariton Family Medical Center CFMC and Red Haw Family Medical Center RHFMC the only two local family practice clinics in Chariton Those physicians are Kenneth Anderson DO Greg Cohen DO Douglas Hoch MD all of CFMC and Philip D Sundquist MD of RHFMC Also involved in the CFMC practice are Allison Krutsinger PAC Chris Osier PAC Jasmina SalcinovicSpahic PAC and Juanita Durham ARNP Chelsey Bonnett PAC sees patients at RHFMC Dr Michael Gorski is the physician employed by the Health Center as Emergency Department Director Other physicians who work closely with LCHC include pathologist Ashok Pradhan MD Neal Sokol DO FACOS FICS who maintains his general surgery practice at Surgical Clinic of Southern Iowa PC Chief Radiologist Robert Filippone DO and psychiatrists Loren Olson MD and James Brooks MD