“Without the involvement of USDA Rural Development, this hospital would not have been built,” says Martin Richman, CEO of the Jamestown Regional Medical Center (JRMC). Marty smiled from ear-to-ear as he prepared to thank North Dakota Rural Development State Director, Jasper Schneider and his staff at a formal ribbon cutting ceremony at the new $52 million facility. USDA Rural Development financed a direct loan through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and guaranteed a loan through AgStar Financial.
The 25-bed, critical access hospital will not only serve a nine-county area but it will also stimulate the economy through employment of over 300 health professionals. The community hospital’s roots date back to 1928 when ground was broken for JRMD’s predecessor. That older structure will now be owned by Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota and remodeled into a senior housing facility financed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Five miles away, the new hospital was built on the outskirts of Jamestown, adjacent to Interstate-94 with a helipad, two drive-through bays to the emergency department, three surgery suites, and eleven pre-operation rooms with state-of-the-art equipment. Spacious patient rooms will aid healing with breath-taking views of the expansive countryside, high-tech beds that electronically send the patient’s weight and status to the nursing station, built-in lifts that ward off injuries to both patients and staff, large flat-screen televisions, and accommodations for loved-ones who want to stay past visiting hours.
The hospital administrator’s list of physicians include specialists from Level 2 medical centers in Fargo and Bismarck but his goal is to continue to add services including radiation oncology, urology, and neurology so central North Dakotans won’t have to travel an extra ninety miles for treatment. Thankful for the money to make the project possible, Richman described the Rural Development staff as “a solid group of people. When you think of public service, I think of USDA Rural Development of North Dakota. If there is a problem, they think of a way to solve it!”
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