Knoxville Hospital & Clinics is one of many rural hospitals that faced challenges throughout 2020. CEO Kevin Kincaid says that the hospital often transfers patients that need specialized care to hospitals in Des Moines. At the peak of the recent surge of COVID-19 cases, he says they were nearly on the brink of being turned away.

“We bought more critical care equipment, we have more ventilators than we’ve normally had, we’ve upped our training with critical care, in preparation for if we have a patient that we need to transfer to a higher level of care. And if that’s not available, what would we do? We have a responsibility to care for people, so we were preparing for that. It came close, but we were able to see ourselves through that surge. Everybody received the care that they required, and I felt very blessed we were there. But it was uncomfortably close.”

KHC was featured on NBC News earlier this fall to highlight the challenges faced by rural healthcare providers during the pandemic, where hospital staff were interviewed and expressed their concerns about capacity overloads. The first vaccines in Marion County were administered earlier this week to staff members at both KHC and at Pella Regional Health Center. Hear more from Kincaid here.