Buchanan County Health Center

Buchanan County Health Center sits in Independence, Iowa, and offers a wide mix of health services, so you get just about everything in one place, like family medicine, long-term care, and retirement living through Oak View Retirement with its special services and floor plans, and then you'll find a wellness center, too, where folks can join fitness and wellness programs, and the staff works to make care fit each person's situation. You've got clinics in Independence, Oelwein, and Jesup for family medicine, so people from different towns don't have to travel far for regular check-ups or help with health questions. The main hospital is a critical access hospital, which means it's set up to serve the local area with emergency care, inpatient stays, lab work, and outpatient help, along with a range of experienced providers across 18 different clinical areas and 19 areas of medicine, covering things from allergy and cardiology to ENT, mental health, orthopedics, oncology, surgery, and women's health, plus special services like infusion, advanced pain treatment, and cardiac rehab. The center has modern surgical rooms with up-to-date technology where the doctors do many kinds of surgery, including general surgery, GI screening, orthopedics, ENT, urology, and more, and there's a separate outpatient surgery spot for those who only need short stays. Patients get the use of a pharmacy over in Oelwein, and there's access to nutrition care, therapy services for physical and occupational needs, speech therapy, respiratory services, sleep studies, and wound care, and for seniors, they run long-term care services with extra activities and events to help folks feel at home and make connections. The center provides education programs so patients can learn more about their health, and there's a patient portal where people can see their own health records and take care of bills online, which can make life a bit easier, and if you need urgent care outside of normal hours, you can drop in on Mondays between 5:30 and 8:30 in the evening for extra convenience, since life doesn't always line up with a regular schedule. With more than 300 people working in full and part time jobs here, the goal is to serve Buchanan County residents close to home, help them stay healthy, and give support when medical needs come up for folks and their families.