Patients and health care providers alike are reaping the benefits of Primary Health Care’s (PHC’s) spacious new facility located at 101 Iowa Ave. W. Ste. 102 as they settle in and adjust to the extra square footage.

RaDonna Bracy, both a registered nurse (RN) and the clinical practice manager at PHC, said they had outgrown their previous home at 412 E. Church St. long ago, and employees were very excited to be in the new building.

“It’s very surreal. We still come in and think, ‘Are we really here?’ It makes my heart warm and our staff’s heart warm,” Bracy said. “Our patients, they deserve this type of facility and it’s been a very positive experience for them also.”

The new facility has about three times more space than the prior location, and that allows the PHC medical team to work comfortably. In addition to the medical team, Bracy said they are looking forward to bringing in the dental clinic and OB/GYN, and the new facility also has space for an in-house pharmacist. Their medication assisted treatment program for those struggling with addiction will also be making the move.

“We’ll be able to be truly integrated. If we have a dental patient who has a medical need, we could possibly address it that day or get them an appointment to come back,” Bracy said. “I think that with having the ability for patients to pick up their prescriptions here versus going to another building, we’ll see better compliance with medication also.”

Prescription orders are put in with the Des Moines pharmacy and then sent to the Marshalltown location. Pharmacist Shauna Brooks staffs the pharmacy, and currently, it is open three days a week.

The convenience of having all PHC offices in one place isn’t the only thing that came with the new facility. An X-ray machine is also a new feature for PHC, and Director of Marketing Marissa Conrad said the accessibility for patients with limited mobility has been maximized with wider hallways and automatic doors.

“At our old clinic, we had this little vestibule like you would walk in, have to pull open a door to a tiny little vestibule then you would pull open another door to get in,” Conrad said. “To have the automatic doors, that’s something I’m excited about.”

Patient care teams or “pods,” as Bracy called them, have several different group offices at the new building. Each pod has a number of health care providers, nurses and at least one interpreter for patients whose first language is not English.

Rooms with overstuffed chairs and a relaxing atmosphere have been set up for patients in the medication assisted treatment program as those patients could be at the clinic for up to six hours.

“We wanted kind of a comfortable room, a quiet room for them,” Bracy said. “Exam rooms can feel cold to patients, and it can be scary. So when we have a patient who is ready to take on their addiction we want it to be more inviting and we want it to be very comfortable and positive.”

Staff areas also received an upgrade at the new facility, as the new combination break/conference room features space to sit down and an area large enough for all staff meetings.

“Our official break room in the other building didn’t even have a table in it,” Bracy said. “It’s been really nice for our staff. You hear them talking about home and laughing and we just didn’t have a whole lot of that before.”

Staff also have lockers and an area to hang coats up, and on top of the larger break room/conference area, they have conference rooms for smaller meetings. Rooms outside of the pod offices are set up for private telehealth visits as well.

A larger lab area also makes lab work easier for staff, although they’re still getting used to the space. Cabinets and drawers are labeled with sticky notes for the time being as everyone learns where various items are stored.

The front desk area is clinic office specialist Betty Schnathorst’s territory, and she is overjoyed with the facility’s aesthetics and the space it provides. After working at PHC for 30 years, the change has been more than welcome.

“It is amazing. The size, just the whole atmosphere and the cleanliness, it’s been a long time coming,” Schnathorst said. “They had downsized at the front desk and moved everything around and it just got — to me, it got trashy looking.”

Schnathorst said when she asked patients what they thought of the new location, the response was always overwhelmingly positive.

“I don’t feel like when I come in here, it’s low income. That was nice to feel that way,” she said.

Once the dental office moves in, Bracy said they plan on having an open house for the community to see the new building. For now, however, employees are busy getting unpacked and reveling in the features of their new and much improved home.

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Contact Susanna Meyer at 641-753-6611 or

smeyer@timesrepublican.com.