Hospital CEO: ORHC is safe, stable

December 16, 2024

OTTUMWA — William Kiefer's venture to Ottumwa was a sudden one. He received a call as the ownership of Ottumwa Regional Health Center became aware that not only had one of its staff members died of an overdose inside the hospital, but that staffer had also sexually assaulted several patients.

"I received a call, I was living in Arizona at the time," Kiefer recalled Thursday. "It said [we] need you in Iowa in a week."

Kiefer came first as interim CEO, then the interim tag was removed. As he embarks on two years in Ottumwa he believes ORHC is gaining momentum in its transformation to make the hospital better and to improve the organization's trust with the community and region. Not just because of the scandal which became public in 2022, but for issues that predated that scandal.

On Thursday, Ottumwa Regional Health Center invited various community stakeholders to Bridge View Center for a lengthy program meant to share the progress that's came over more than two years. The stated goal of the meeting was to arm stakeholders with information to directly refute rumors that circulate the community about ORHC.

Off the rip, Kiefer made a few things clear. The hospital is not for sale. The hospital is not in danger of closing. It is safe to go to ORHC for medical care.

But he wasn't afraid to acknowledge there were cause for past concerns.

"When I walked into Ottumwa Regional for the first time, I [had] never walked into a dirtier healthcare facility," Kiefer recalled. "And we very quickly turned that around. If you walk into our hospital today, I will stand it up against any other hospital. It is clean. Our floors sparkle — they shine. It is a clean environment."

Addressing cleanliness and other factors has started to show results. According to federally reported data shared by Kiefer, ORHC has gone 13 quarters without a urinary tract infection caused by a catheter, 10 quarters without a blood stream infection caused by a central line, and seven quarters without a hospital-acquired MRSA infection. According to the National Healthcare Safety Network standards, there's been no reportable harms caused at ORHC in 2024.

In Kiefer's tenure, the hospital has been subject to intense regulatory scrutiny from state and federal officials, including on-site monitoring among other things. Kiefer said ORHC always complied with those reviews, and has received passing grades in its most recent inspections.

The hospital now employs 15 physicians and has a workforce of 404. In the first 10 months of the year, the hospital had logged more than 52,000 outpatient visits; over 11,000 emergency room visits; over 1,800 inpatient admissions; delivered over 200 babies; and had nearly 600 procedures in the catheter lab.

While some notable faces have left the hospital, Kiefer said officials have focused on recruiting quality talent to the facility — and have worked to ensure services haven't lapsed.

New faces included general surgeon Dr. Alan Billsby and two certified nurse midwifes, Abigail Storto and Scotian Peterson. In 2025, the hospital will welcome a new orthopedic doctor and an OB/GYN doctor.

The hospital this year renovated its front reception, has implemented new exam tables and replaced its EKG machines, nerve stimulator, automated external defibrillators and more.

Kiefer said the hospital is the first in Iowa with an Aquablation robot to help treat men with prostate issues with maintaining sexual function. ORHC also updated its Da Vinci robot and implemented a new cardiac lab in 2023.

More is coming soon, notable a nearly $2.6 million investment in a new MRI coming in late 2025.

In all, ORHC and its parent company LifePoint Health, have invested $4 million in capital upgrades, plus $1.1 million in salary increases for nurses in the last twoyears, plus other salary increases totaling another $1.5 million.

"We continue to invest in the organization and into our people to bring the very best in, so that they then provide the very best care to our patients," Kiefer said. "We will continue to evaluate this moving forward and continue to work to maintain our competitive nature and competitive stance when it comes to salaries in the market."

The hospital's efforts to improve haven't stopped and won't stop, Kiefer said. He acknowledged frustrations with billing and the emergency department continue, but the hospital continues to chip away at those, too.

Medical billing is complex for everyone involved, but Kiefer said those with struggles can always phone the hospital directly to receive help locally to address their concerns.

While some wait in the emergency department may be unavoidable at times because the hospital draws emergency patients from a larger region and in some cases other area hospitals, Kiefer said lives are saved every day.

"If you come with an acute (emergency) situation, we are going to triage you appropriately, and we're going to take care of you," Kiefer said. "We will save your life in our emergency department, we do it every single day."

The reality also exists that some situations are beyond what ORHC is staffed and equipped to handle. And for those, there will always be transports to larger facilities in Des Moines and Iowa City.

"I know that people have feelings about the helicopter," he said. "We are that middle-tier hospital. We have smaller regional hospitals that surround us, then there's us as a step up, and then there's the tertiary facilities in Des Moines and Iowa City.

"We will never be a tertiary center of care. We will never do cardiac open heart surgery. We will never do complex neuroradiological work. That is not what we're meant for. We don't have the population to support that type of provider in the community where we live."

But even still, the hospital is working to continue improvement in terms of emergency room wait times and service. He said a third-party company assists in finding physicians and nurse practitioners for the emergency department, and ORHC has worked to increase accountability.

"We meet with them regularly and we are getting better quality providers," Kiefer said. He also added that the hospital is looking to install its next great leader and feels it's close to hiring that. Recently, the hospital added a new leader for its emergency department nurses, and has seen a 25% decrease in the amount of time people are spending in the hospital's emergency department in two months.

"We are much better than we've been, and we're on a trajectory to get even better than that," Kiefer said.

As Kiefer works to spread the confidence he has in ORHC's quality and improvements amongst the community at large, he also said he hopes with that will come more community pride in Ottumwa itself.

"The community does not speak well of itself," he said. "You read things that people post online and they degrade the community. I've lived in a lot of different places, I think Ottumwa is a fantastic place. I think it has so much to offer. And we've got to reverse that [negativity]. We can't have a great hospital, and a great reputation as a hospital if people just don't feel good about where they live. We need to put our best foot forward as an organization, and also as a community.

"That's my call to action for each one of you today. Let's build up the community. Let's talk about the great work that GOPIP does, let's talk about the great job the schools do at educating. There's so many great things here and if we band together and talk about the good more than we talk about the bad, I think everyone will come out a winner."

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