Latest News

Community Challenged to Support Annual Fund

Two local families and foundations have joined forces to jumpstart the 2010 GRMC annual fund drive. The Gosselink family, the Witt family, the Claude & Dolly Ahrens Foundation, and the Claude Ahrens Charitable Trust announced Monday they will match the community’s donations with a $25,000 challenge grant to help support healthcare programs and services through the 2010 Grinnell Regional Medical Center Annual Fund Drive. Read More

GRMC Auxiliary Launches Challenge Drive

The Grinnell Regional Medical Center Auxiliary launched its fundraising Challenge Drive on March 1, inviting anyone in the GRMC service area to take part. The auxiliary and its Challenge Drive support the medical center through volunteer, financial, and educational initiatives. Read More

2010 GRMC Board Announced

Grinnell Regional Medical Center’s Board of Directors welcomes two new members as it announces the 2010 officers.

Karla Erickson, PhD, MA, assistant professor of sociology with Grinnell College, and Laura Van Cleve, DO, psychiatrist at Poweshiek County Mental Health, join the medical center’s governing body. Erickson and Van Cleve join 13 area residents providing direction, vision, and strategic planning for GRMC’s future. Read More

As with seasonal influenza, Iowans are urged to help prevent the spread of H1N1 by taking the following precautions:

• When you cough or sneeze, cover your nose and mouth with a tissue or your sleeve (if you do not have a tissue). Throw used tissues in a trash can.
• After you cough or sneeze, wash your hands with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based hand gel.
• If you are ill with a respiratory illness (coughing and sneezing), stay home from work or school so you don't make others sick.
• Avoid close contact with others who are coughing or appear to be ill.
• Symptoms of H1N1 include fever (greater than 100 F), along with cough, sore throat, headache and body aches, and extreme tiredness. Some people have also reported diarrhea and vomiting associated with H1N1.

Other key criteria include, onset of respiratory illness within seven days of close contact with a person who is a confirmed case of H1N1, who has traveled to a city with a confirmed case of H1N1, or resides in a community where H1N1 has been confirmed.

If you have any of these symptoms, call your healthcare provider for directions for diagnosis. Preventing the spread of the illness is a major public health concern; therefore, patients may be advised to not go to the waiting room of a physician’s office and risk contaminating others. For more information on suspected or confirmed H1N1 or season flu, click here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers information on the website at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu.

The hot line number for general public inquiries to the Iowa Department of Public Health is 800-447-1985. Telephone is answered 24/7.

We will update this site as more information is available.