FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 9, 1997
CONTACT: Dana Hagerty 202/225-2165
ADA, MN -- Congressman Collin C. Peterson (DFL-7th District) announced today that Bridges Medical Services, which consists of the Ada Hospital, clinic and nursing home, will receive more than $7.4 million in federal disaster assistance funds to build a new facility.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had initially determined that the facility was not more than 50 percent damaged, and therefore was only eligible for funding to repair the existing facility.
"This is important news for Ada and the surrounding area," Peterson said. "Rural health care is already hard enough to supply and keep, and without these additional monies, Ada might not have been able to restore all of the health care services disrupted by the flood."
As a result of the flooding, Bridges Medical Services (BMS) was reduced from a 14 bed hospital, 49 bed Long Term Care Unit with a campus clinic and two satellite clinics, to a temporary clinic and two satellite clinics.
"BMS is the largest employer in Norman County," Peterson said, "so this decision not only means that medical services will be available again in the Ada area, but that jobs will not be lost."
City officials appealed FEMA's original decision because their engineering consultants felt that contaminates located in the flooded facility would endanger the lives of patients and residents if not adequately removed. After additional testing and consideration, FEMA officials agreed that their original inspections and determinations needed to be adjusted as contaminates were considerably higher than originally projected, resulting in the 50% substantially damaged determination. Therefore, it will be more cost effective to construct a new facility rather than repair the old one.
"The new medical campus, which will be built at an undetermined location, will have more efficient and cost saving measures factored into the design," Peterson said.
A temporary facility, approved by FEMA, will be open in late September. It will accommodate 8 hospital beds and a 12 exam room outpatient clinic.