Wayne County Hospital provider believes when it comes to medicine, it’s best to shop locally
Joel Wells, DO of Wayne County Hospital and South Central Iowa Medical Clinic
by Jason W. Selby
Though Dr. Joel Wells did not become a member of the Wayne County Hospital until 2011, he has worked there since 1989.
“Now you’ve got more doctors, more PAs and Nurse Practitioners, so the clinic’s growing, and that means better access to patients here in the county,” Wells says. “People have access to healthcare at higher levels than we had in the past. That’s panned out.
“We’ve always had a good reputation as a hospital. I felt good about Daren [Relph, when he became CEO], and he’s done a good job coordinating the clinic.
“Everyone seems to understand what direction the hospital and the clinic system [needs] to go. They all work together well. It’s a good place to work. It’s easy for me to say that—I’m one of the doctors. But I’ve got it good, because the nurses, the staff, the receptionists—everyone I work with is very supportive of what I need to do to take care of patients.”
One moment sticks out for Wells as representative of what WCH stands for.
“I had a patient that was in a Des Moines hospital. I got a call from the family, and she begged to come home to this hospital, because our nurses are the best. That was just her words exactly.
“We don’t have the specialists that they have up there, we can’t do all the procedures, but when it comes to just the regular taking care of people, over and over and over again, I’ll get that patients beg to come back here if they’re somewhere else.
“If people can stay home and get good care, that makes us all feel good.”