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Strong communities start with trustworthy reporting—give to local news now! DECORAH — The WinnMed Board of Trustees unanimously approved a Health Improvement Plan on Wednesday following the completion of its 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment, outlining a targeted response to rising concerns about mental health, substance use, and limited access to specialty and primary care across northeastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota. The assessment, mandated by the Affordable Care Act and conducted every three years, and presented by Director of Marketing & Communications Mary Marx, gathered community input through a month-long survey in March. Despite efforts to broaden participation, only 217 responses were submitted, all in English and largely from highly educated, higher-income individuals. Trustees expressed concern about the limited sample size and demographic skew, but staff emphasized that findings were consistent with broader public health data and historical trends. The five top community concerns identified in the assessment were: Alcohol and drug use and abuse Affordable, quality housing Affordable health insurance Access to primary and specialty care Access to mental health services and child care To address the issues within its scope, WinnMed's Health Improvement Plan includes an array of programs, service expansions, and partnerships: Behavioral Health Access: WinnMed is expanding its integrated behavioral health (IBH) model to reduce wait times to one or two weeks for initial appointments. It also conducts suicide screenings at every patient visit and offers group therapy for chronic pain and insomnia. Specialty Provider Expansion: The hospital has added or plans to onboard specialists in OB-GYN, allergy and immunology, dermatology, urology, general surgery, rheumatology, and orthopedics. Outreach clinics and urgent care hours are also being expanded. Substance Use and Prevention: Efforts include opioid stewardship, smoking cessation packets, drug drop-off receptacles at the hospital pharmacy, and partnerships with Helping Services for Youth and Families and Quitline Iowa. Nutrition and Food Security: WinnMed's nutrition team provides medically tailored meals to homebound individuals, local preschools, and mobile meal recipients. It also hosts senior nutrition classes and offers a long-running farmers market voucher program. Support for Older Adults: Through home health, hospice, transitional care management, and dementia care services, WinnMed aims to support aging-in-place and reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions. The hospital also collaborates with nursing homes and provides medical direction. Board members applauded the plan's depth but also called for more cross-agency collaboration, especially on issues WinnMed doesn't directly control, such as housing and transportation. "I just had a conversation with somebody about potential cuts to LIHEAP and rent assistance," Board Member Jan Heikes noted. "And if that happens, I'm quite sure that our providers are going to see social determinants of health. It's going to be really hard to be healthy if you don't have a warm house or if people are under a lot of stress…given all the cuts that seem to be coming, I'm concerned about that." Heikes further stressed that there was a role for WinnMed board members to play in the community to address these issues. Some members questioned whether physician input on patient social conditions could serve as a supplemental data source for future assessments, given the difficulty in getting survey responses from underrepresented populations. Others flagged the need for broader coalition-building, particularly on substance abuse. WinnMed's report included regional data comparisons showing that Fillmore and Winneshiek counties exceed state averages in alcohol-impaired driving deaths and adult obesity, and that Fillmore County has an especially high ratio of residents per mental health provider—nearly 2,390-to-one, compared to 470-to-one in Iowa overall. "It seems like [for] multiple years alcohol and drug abuse [has] come up as an issue, and particularly looking at the fatality data in Fillmore County related to alcohol," Board Member Karen McClean continued. "It's a complicated issue to address… And I feel like we have a number of agencies that are probably working on this, but I sometimes wonder, do we know what everybody else is doing, and do they know what we're doing? We might all be doing the same thing without filling the gaps." In her presentation, Marx acknowledged that the survey data lacks full representation. She noted that multiple community organizations were conducting similar assessments around the same time, likely contributing to "survey fatigue." Flyers with QR codes were distributed at local pantries, churches, libraries, and WIC distribution sites, but none of the responses came through the Spanish-language version. Marx emphasized, however, that WinnMed's plan is action-oriented and reflects the areas where the hospital can have the most direct impact. Become a part of the exclusive circle! Subscribe to the newsletter for free and gain access to special offers, bonus content and insider perks.

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WinnMed Adopts Plan to Tackle Rural Health Gaps