CONTRIBUTED PHOTO — UnityPoint leadership team members and representatives of the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce marked the opening of the new hospital at 55 UnityPoint Way with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday morning. UnityPoint Health — Marshalltown Director of Nursing Jen Arneson, holding scissors, did the honor, and the public was invited to tour the new facility afterward.

When UnityPoint Health — Waterloo President and CEO Pam Delagardelle led the charge to acquire Central Iowa Healthcare in 2017 and bring Marshalltown into the fold of the larger organization, her reasoning was simple.

“The thought of this size of community not having a hospital and struggling just really tugged at our heartstrings, and we really felt like with the footprint that UnityPoint had both in Grundy Center and then in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, that it was very complimentary,” Delagardelle said. “(We felt) that we could support this community from a specialty services standpoint and a primary care standpoint in a way that other entities probably could not.”

During a ribbon cutting ceremony held at the brand new southside hospital on Saturday morning, all of the hard work of the last five years was realized as UnityPoint officially marked the transition from the 108-year-old downtown hospital to a smaller, more modern facility.

Hundreds of area residents poured in for the ribbon cutting and the subsequent tours of the new hospital and ambulance bay led by UnityPoint team members. Jenni Friedly, who serves as the president of the UnityPoint Health — Marshalltown organization, said the $38.4 million project benefited from some serendipitous timing as most of it was planned out with materials ordered before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, sending prices skyrocketing and causing widespread supply chain issues. Graham Construction of Cedar Rapids served as the general contractor.

“We got in just in time before the pandemic, which really was a blessing,” Friedly said. “In 2020, right before the first cases showed up, we got our project done and approved and got it in just in time. We’ve had some hiccups along the way, but we’ve had really good partners on this project who have moved things to make it work and get us what we need.”

Friedly added that seeing the finished facility, which will officially open to patients on April 27, has been emotional for members of the leadership team who have been involved with Marshalltown since the acquisition in 2017. It also provides a renewed opportunity for UnityPoint to win back patients who may have looked elsewhere for their healthcare needs in the past.

“I’m grateful to this community for the support. I hope those that are still questioning do come back and give us a chance because I think we can deliver a better experience and high quality right here at home,” she said. “I don’t think people have to leave home to get that.”

Shari King, the hospital administrator, expressed similar sentiments and called the move to the hospital at 55 UnityPoint Way “a big next step.”

“It’s really been a remarkable five years since we’ve been here. Obviously, we’re in the middle of opening a beautiful new building, but when you look back at the tornado and the derecho and the pandemic and everything else that’s happened in healthcare these last five years, it’s amazing that we’ve made it,” King said. “And we’re still standing and we’re still resilient, and we’re still here to take care of people.”

The completion and opening of the new hospital, as King put it, is only the beginning of the work and is certainly not the end. Now, the task at hand is to show how it can serve the community and take local healthcare to the next level.

“We’ve got a ton to do, but it sets the stage for us to be successful in some other strategies and initiatives that we really want to advance in Marshalltown,” King said.

For more information, visit https://www.unitypoint.org/marshalltown.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.