Health

Fidelity Bank is the second sponsor to come forward with a large donation to the fundraising campaign for the new Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Postville Medical Clinic. Their generous donation of $10,000 was recently gifted to this project, helping to push the thermometer higher towards that goal of $200,000. The need for a new clinic stems largely from limited space to accommodate the growing number of patients seen at the clinic each day, especially now with new providers starting to care for the patients of the Postville area.  Pictured above, from left to right, outside of the new clinic location, are Jared  Funk, Vice President; John Heying, Regional President, and Ashley Kisling, Retail Loan Officer all of Fidelity Bank, along with Teresa Berg, Clinic Receptionist; Alisha Henderson, Clinic RN; Sandy Lopez, Clinic Medical Assistant;  Katie Grangaard, NP; and Beth Shafer, Growth and Development Coordinator.

by Connor Meyer, Respiratory Therapist, Veterans Memorial Hospital

National Respiratory Care Week is a good time to remind the public to exercise those lungs. Not only is exercise good for the heart, but it also helps keep the lungs in great shape!
Connor Meyer, Certified Respiratory Therapist, recommends the following to keep lungs healthy:
• Exercise at least 30 minutes five days a week, while focusing on good quality, consistent breaths.
• Take a break every hour to take in five deep breaths and slowly exhale. This not only helps with your lung capacity, but it also helps prevent infections from settling in your lungs.  Plus it is a great exercise to reduce stress!
• Drink plenty of water to be sure to stay hydrated.
• Get outside into the fresh air every day!

Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Community and Home Care/Allamakee Public Health staff have traveled to each community in Allamakee County during October offering flu shots.  Walk-in clinics at the main entrance to Veterans Memorial Hospital will continue both emaining Wednesdays this month including October 22 and 29. Walk-in clinics are held from 9-11:30 a.m. plus appointments can be made any Wednesday afternoon by calling 563-568-5660. Flu and COVID shots are both being offered.

Billing for vaccinations will be completed by the Community and Home Care staff, but participants will need to bring their Medicare number or private insurance card with them. If insurance does not cover these immunizations, they can be purchased instead.

According to the American Cancer Society, one in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. In 2025, an estimated 316,950 women and 2,800 men will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Only lung cancer kills more women each year. The chance that any woman will die from breast cancer is about 1 in 43 (about 2.3%).  Breast cancer death rates have been decreasing steadily since 1989, for an overall decline of 44% through 2022. The decrease in death rates is believed to be the result of finding breast cancer earlier through screening and increased awareness, as well as better treatments.

The next LifeServe Blood Center Blood Drive will be held Monday, November 3, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the First Baptist Church in south Waukon. Blood drives are held every month in Waukon to allow for more donors to give. The LifeServe Blood Center supplies Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) with their blood and blood products.

The Blood Center is seeking donors to ensure a safe and plentiful blood supply in Iowa. Because there is no substitute for human blood, the need for donors is continuous, and especially important over the holidays.

Over half of the United States population is eligible to donate blood, yet less than four percent donate on a regular basis. A single donation of blood can be used to save up to three lives and help in treatment of cancer patients, accident victims, hemophiliacs and surgery patients. The LifeServe Blood Center is committed to serving the needs of Iowans by saving lives through volunteer blood donation.

Memorials were recently received by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation in memory of Phyllis Quandahl by Bruce and Lynn Anderson, Ian and Marissa Anderson, Beth Baxter, Betsy Baxter, Kelly Baxter, Ken and Kris Beserek, Ed and Amy Bieber, Joan Bieber, Chuck and Maxine Bloxham, Chris and M’liss Bulman, Grace Bulman, Glenn Bunge, Todd and Kathy Cahoon, Brian Carstens, Michael and Catherine Cassarella, Gayle and Carol Decker, Charles and Kimberly Dering, Ann and Herbert Dehli, Donald Dehning and Janice Cooper, Jenny and Kevin Dixon, Jerry and Michelle Donahue, Cheryl Duncklee, Karen Ferring, Terry and Beth Fitzpatrick, Nancy and Dan Gardner, Don Gavin, Bev Gavle, Lee Gavle, Mike and Cindy Gibbs, Frank and Patty Goltz, Glenda and Lawrence Green, Debbie and Larry Griffin, Hazel Grotegut, Bev Haas, Hacker Nelson & Co., Jon and Amy Hagen, Roger Hammel, James and Marge Harris, Barbara and David Henry, Larue and Marvyn Hilpipre, Randy and Lori Hover, Steve and Jane Johanningmeier

FreedomBank is the first corporate sponsor to come forward with a large donation to the fundraising campaign for the new Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Postville Medical Clinic. Their generous donation of $10,000 was recently gifted to this project as a pacesetting donation to help jump-start this campaign.

FreedomBank Vice President, Barb Shull, states, “This project provides accessibility to additional health care right in our communities. In addition, VMH has worked hard at bringing in new employees including providers and a psychiatric mental health nurse to support the people right here in our local areas.  We are proud to donate to a project that supports both the people and the growing businesses for the overall success of our local counties.”

The “Faces of the Future” Healthcare Career Day was held Tuesday, October 7 at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) thanks to the coordination of Corinne Cook, RN, and Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC). The hospital’s Large Conference Room was completely filled with 27 high school students from the area school systems who quickly signed-up to attend this filled to capacity event.

These students spent the school day at the hospital learning about a wide variety of health care careers including nursing, nursing assistant, health information management/medical records, medical assistant, phlebotomy, clinical, respiratory therapy, laboratory, x-ray, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and sports medicine, pharmacy, nutrition, dietetics, behavioral health, home care, dental assistant, chiropractic, surgery, paramedic and emergency medical technician.

A second new Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Angie Taylor, PMHNP, will join the Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) and Clinics health care team next week, for a total of three behavioral health providers to help meet the great demand for these services. Angie will be seeing patients in the Waukon Clinic as well as the Postville Clinic.  She joins Tara Fink, who began these local services three years ago, and Janet Hunter who also joined this team earlier this month, in making up this strong behavioral health team.

Taylor was born and raised in Elgin. She has spent the last nearly 25 years as a nurse at the Regional Medical Center in Manchester where she has worked a variety of nursing roles in emergency, med-surge, obstetrics, outpatient psychiatry and leadership. She chose to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) to provide a positive impact and improve quality of life for individuals and the community.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Veterans Memorial Hospital Community and Home Care-Allamakee Public Health and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (Iowa HHS) are working together to increase awareness among Iowans of the risk factors for breast cancer and provide information about breast cancer screening. According to the Iowa Cancer Registry, breast cancer is one of four types of cancer largely driving Iowa’s high overall cancer incidence rate.