History of Healthcare In Bowdle, South Dakota

Bowdle's first hospital services began in 1886 with the help of Dr. William Edwards. In 1889, the first permanent structure was built on Main Street. Dr. Edwards felt the need to expand and had a concrete block building built on Third Ave South in 1918. It housed a reception room, two patient rooms, a lab, an exam room and an operating room. In 1927, when Dr. T.D. Jones was the physician, the patient load was too great for the building, so it was expanded, through the formation of the Bowdle Community Hospital Association, to include a larger operating room and five patient rooms. Share were sold in 1927 during the formation and again in 1940. In 1949, the Association voted that the could no longer carry the financial load and deeded the property to the city of Bowdle with the compromise that included a settlement of $2,500 on a mortgage and a governing board that consisted of three city council members and two citizens appointed by the mayer. In 1951 the hospital closed due to lack of a doctor/staff and the large financial debt. In 1954 the hospital was reopened when Dr. Rainis Berzins moved to Bowdle and opened a practice. In 1958 through extensive fund raising the first x-ray unit was purchased and installed in the basement.

The need for the health care throughout the nation prompted the federal government to pass the Hill-Burton Act, which apportioned federal dollars for health care construction in return for the care of the poor. In 1959, construction began on our current hospital. Edward Schmidtgall donated the land and later made available land for the nursing home, which was built in 1965. The community voted to bond itself and together with funds raised by public enterprise and the Hospital Auxiliary, the hospital was built and dedicated in 1962 at a cost of $350,000. It included twenty patient beds, a surgery room, labor room, examining room, emergency room, x ray room, nurse's lounge, modern kitchen, laundry, doctor's lounge, administrative offices, 10-bed nursery with three incubators and conference room. Equipment needs were met by the fund raising efforts of the Hospital Auxiliary.

In July 1964, the Bowdle Commercial Club sent a delegation to the City Council to request construction of a nursing home to provide care for the elderly. On November 20, 1964 a public meeting took place to explain the plan and on November 23, 1964, 380 voters turned out to vote with only 38 of the votes being nays. Bonds for $175,000 at 6% interest were issued to build the nursing home, but South Dakota Code Laws required the necessary funds to pay for construction, furnishing, and two years guarantee in operating capital. So in April of1965, 278 people turned out to vote for the additional $50,000 in bonds and only 28 nays were cast. On march 15, 1966 the first two resident were admitted to the nursing home and soon after 8 more residents came from other nursing homes. Dakota Care Center leased the nursing home from 1971 to 1983 and Adventist Health system began leasing the nursing home in January 1983.

For years funeral homes provided ambulance services, but when Medicare was implemented, many funeral homes eliminated the service because o f increased regulations, as did Miller Funeral Home in Bowdle. On July 1, 1971, the City of Bowdle took over the area Ambulance Service. Volunteers were solicited to operate the service. In December 1971, the City of Bowdle Purchased the Miller Funeral Home ambulance with help from Edmunds County. Federal regulation changes in 1975 required the purchase of a van style body with more equipment so a new ambulance was purchased and furnished in 1976 for $18,000.

The Adventist Health System signed a management contract with the hospital in 1981 and in 1983 entered into a lease agreement for both the hospital and nursing home. In 1984 the swing-bed program was implemented as an addition source of revenue. Later that year Adventist Health System terminated its lease agreement with the city effective November 30thth.

Westworld Community Healthcare Inc. leased the two facilities and ambulance service in January 1985. Westworld's vision was to work quickly with satellite clinics and they soon set up and staffed clinics in Roscoe and Selby. In November 1986 Westworld terminated the lease to the City of Bowdle.

The City of Bowdle decided to operate the facilities themselves rather than lease them again and in the fall of 1987 Dr. John McFee took over as the Primary Care Provider. As the patient load grew, so did the need to remodel. Outreach clinics such as orthopedics, urology and cardiology were started and outreach mobile computer tomography and ultrasound from St. Lukes were also provided as well. As space became an issue, a Multi Purpose Center was designed to connect the hospital and Nursing home. It included new administrative offices for both facilities and the city, a restorative nursing area, kitchen, laundry, wellness center and meeting rooms/ Construction of the addition, which cost $2.2 million, began in 1993 and was completed in 1995. As a result of the additional space new services; such as, Physical Therapy, Home Health, Assisted Living and Cardiac Rehab.

The Bowdle City Council and Bowdle Healthcare Center Board of Directors continue to work hard today to offer state of the art health care to Bowdle and the surrounding communities.