NEVADA, Iowa — There’s still a few minor items, but for the most part the sparkling new Story Medical Senior Care long-term care facility is ready to open. The 60 bed, $22 million complex is set to have residents move in starting next week. Some 50 residents will be coming from their old Story County long-term care building south of downtown.

The Story Medical Senior Care is owned by the Story County Medical Center, but is operated as its own entity.

“We’re able to borrow money at a very low interest rate, 2%, over 35 years for USDA,” said Nate Thompson, CEO of Story County Medical Center. “We really leaned into that to make sure that we’re looking at both you know long-term planning, but also transparency for the taxpayer in the structure.”  

The Board of the Story County Medical Center has been planning to build this new long-term care center for about 15 years. Dave Anderson of the board has been watching what is happening in Iowa. Some nursing homes are being sold at a really low cost. He worries the care might not be adequate.

“Our facility is over $22 million in cost, for our 60 members, it turns out to be about $360,000 per bed, so this is substantially different than what you’re seeing in other parts of the state,” said Anderson. “There’s a lot of controversy about that, or they’re probably should be more scrutiny on some of these facilities.”

There are about 35 people on the waiting list to move into Story Medical Senior Care.

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