Promise CHC expands again, fills out remaining portion of building

SIOUX CENTER � Promise Community Health Center has gradually transformed the interior of its downtown Sioux Center building since opening in 2008.

Nine years later, the former bowling alley building now is full.

The health center recently completed a 2,200-square-foot interior expansion and remodeling project that filled the remaining vacant space in the west portion of the building. Schelling Construction of Sioux Center served as the general contractor.

A group of Sioux Center Middle School eighth-
graders use Promise Community Health Center's
new community education/conference room for a
presentation. The room was part of Promise's
recently-completed interior expansion project.

�The expansion and remodel of space at Promise says that we will continue to grow and change � always looking for ways that best meet the needs of those we seek to serve,� said Nancy Dykstra, executive director of Promise.

The interior expansion project includes a much larger community education/conference room, two patient rooms and two offices. The vision/eye care program will move into one of the exam rooms in the near future, and the second exam room will allow for future growth. The two new offices are occupied by the executive director and chief financial officer.

The project also involved the remodeling and reuse of existing spaces. The former conference room has been divided into four office cubicles � with two allocated to the family planning nurse educator and medical records specialist and two for future staff growth. The executive director�s former office has been converted into a small conference room. The other additional office has allowed the director of operations and clinic manager to have their own offices instead of sharing one. The relocation of vision/eye care will open up a needed exam room for the clinical staff. A workstation also was freed up for the new nurse health coach in the clinical setting � ensuring that she is accessible and available to the medical team and that the services are integrated.

Dr. Del Lassen talks to members of the Hull Kiwanis
Club in the new community education/conference
room of Promise Community Health Center.

Promise�s staff also had outgrown the former education/conference room, so the larger space will accommodate all-staff meetings and trainings. In addition, the larger meeting room � which is equipped with a refrigerator, microwave, cabinets and a large multimedia screen � will enable Promise to adequately host group education sessions for patients and community members, presentations and meetings by community groups, and board meetings.

�The expansion project will allow our new services to grow and current services to function more efficiently and effectively,� Dykstra said. �The expansion provides onsite opportunities for staff education, training and an enhanced work environment.�

Promise Community Health Center of Sioux Center is the only Federally Qualified Health Center serving the far northwest corner of Iowa. Promise provides medical, prenatal, dental, vision and behavioral health services. To learn more, visit www.promisechc.org and watch this video.

BUILDING TRANSFORMATION:

Here are the highlights of other building projects since Promise Community Health Center opened in 2008:

• A dental wing expansion, including three exam rooms, was opened in January 2011.
• Promise completed a 3,000-square-foot expansion that included a new prenatal wing, a conference room, behavioral health therapy room, four offices and a break room in the summer of 2015. The front reception area and other areas of the health center also were remodeled as part of that project.
• Promise purchased the 15,168-square-foot building that it had leased since opening, including the portion occupied by Las Palmas Mexican Grocery Store, on Dec. 30, 2015.
• Construction for a major exterior renovation project is expected to commence in July. All four sides of the building will be refaced, a new front entrance will be created and new awnings will be installed on the front and back of Promise� building. A successful $250,000 capital campaign made that project possible.