Administrator of Genesis Medical Center Ted Rogalski says he's been at the center for 14 years and 28 years in the industry.
He says the medical center focuses primarily on outpatient services, including emergency department, physical therapy, radiology, surgery, and rehab.
Rogalski says the center has 130 employees in the facility, and patient visits average 4,000 per month.
The analytics firm Lilypad notified the medical center last week of the recognition.
"It was kind of a surprise...got that notice... very proud of the organization," Rogalski said. "What it recognizes is our rural health clinic is one of the best in the nation from a financial and operational performance compared to our peers across the country."
According to Rogalski, the recognition places the facility in the top tenth percentile of all rural health clinics nationwide, which totals 5,400 clinics.
Rogalski is proud of the team, which includes physicians, nurses, front office staff, and others dedicated to providing compassionate care.
WVIK asked about the current challenges facing the clinic in rural Mercer County.
"Staffing is probably our number one challenge," Rogaslki said. "We"'ve been searching for a physician, an M.D., to replace a physician who just retired from our clinic. We've been searching for almost two years. We knew our provider was going to retire and it is a major challenge to find a physician provider that want to settle in our rural location."
He says the University of Iowa's last medical class is dropping primary care and enrolling in specialties instead.
"We're the only healthcare provider in Mercer County. For us to be successful in the long term, we need all of our residents to utilize our services not only in the clinic but in the hospital as well," Rogalski said.
The press release sent by Genesis/MercyOne PR Manager Todd Mizener says the following about Lilypad: "Utilizing data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid program to calculate rural-relevant metrics across five domains, the Lilypad Awards provide a comprehensive and objective assessment of rural health clinic performance. The Lilypad Awards evaluate provider-based (hospital-owned) or independent practices to produce a comprehensive ranking system for every Rural Health Clinic in the nation. The Top Five organizations in the five geographic regions have earned the 2024 Lilypad Award Top Clinic recognition."
WVIK contacted Lilypad for an interview about their analytic methods and will update this article when they respond.
