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After half a century, convenient access to health care a reality in Boyd
By Tom Cherveny
Staff Writer

BOYD -- Dwight Eisenhower was living in the White House the last time you could schedule a medical appointment in Boyd.

George W. Bush might not know it, but these days you don't even have to make an appointment in the small, Lac qui Parle County community.

"We have lots of walk-ins," said Bev Westfield, who greets most of the visitors to the Boyd Community Health Center by their first names.


Jill Christie, family nurse practioner, checks blood pressure for Merle Hahn of Boyd. She is a part of a team from Johnson Memorial Health Services in neighboring Dawson providing health care services at the new Boyd Community Health Center. West Central Tribune photo by Tom Cherveny
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    • She doesn't know them all because the medical center is also attracting a lot of new, first-time patients, explained Westfield, a nurse at the clinic.

    She assists Jill Christie, a family nurse practitioner, who staffs the clinic every Tuesday morning of the week.

    Since it opened last August, the downtown clinic has been staffed two mornings of the week by health care providers from the Johnson Memorial Health Services in Dawson. Christie and Westfield do the duties on Tuesdays. Medical doctors Ralph Gerbig, Rhodora Ostrea, and Sinon Janay rotate the duties on Thursdays.

    They are all busy mornings at the health care center. "It's really been hopping," said Christie.

    "I enjoy it," she said. "I like a challenge. I like change."

    No one likes the change better than Vern Lien, the town's mayor and lumber yard owner.

    Mayor Lien said the town had been without a medical clinic since sometime in the early 1950's. That was back when the town had three grocery stores, a hardware store, and all the rest of it.

    Those days and businesses are all gone now, but this community of 250 people continues to "hang in there," said the mayor.

    The opening of the Boyd Community Health Center is one way the community hopes to do more than just hang on. Mayor Lien said the clinic is an important step towards making the community a better place to live. He's hoping its existence will make it possible for seniors citizens in the community to stay there, while also attracting young people to the town.

    The mayor is quick to point out that there's housing available in the community, high-speed internet, 10-ton roads, and a newly built sanitary sewer connection. And, he noted, it's only a 15 to 20 minutes commute to jobs in Dawson or Montevideo.

    All the same, it can be a very long ride to medical care in either Dawson or Montevideo when you're 80 years old, the roads are icy and the winter winds are whipping. Or, it can seem just as long if you're a 20-something parent whose child is screaming with a raging ear infection, according Christie.

    Providing access to medical care for rural residents is what the Boyd Medical Center is all about, said the family nurse practitioner. She said that people put off seeing health care providers if it is difficult to do. That's especially true for senior citizens who have a hard time driving.

    The result, said Christie, is that many rural people don't get the health care attention they need until a crisis develops. They don't receive the care that can prevent major problems.

    "If we lose our access to rural health care, we lose the health of our rural people," said Christie.

    The Boyd Medical Center is making that access possible for people living in the Boyd area, of all ages. While over 23 percent of the population in Lac qui Parle County is age 65 and over, it's not just seniors in the Boyd area who are taking advantage of the new center.

    "It's really a mix," said Westfield of the ages of the patients she greets.

    They arrive with a varied mix of medical needs as well, and that's no problem. The Medical Center is fully equipped with its own laboratory, three private exam rooms and reception and waiting areas. The staff and clinic are able to provide the same kind of care offered at larger, full-time facilities, noted Christie.

    Making this access to health care possible in a small community required the work of many. The Lac qui Parle Health Network, a nonprofit hospital service cooperative, oversees the clinic, according to its director, Mark Roisen.

    The City of Boyd obtained state and federal support, including a $112,000 grant from USDA Rural Development. The funds made it possible to renovate former city office space for use as the clinic.

    The city owns the building and leases it to the Network, which in turn sublets the space to Dawson Memorial Health Services. The arrangement makes it possible to provide health services in an area where patient numbers would not otherwise make it feasible.

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