Rural Healthcare Design: A Lifeline for Stronger Communities & Workforce
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Event Details
Overview:
In this session, JLG Architects partners with Wipfli LLP to share innovative operational, financial, and architectural solutions that address the unique challenges of rural critical access healthcare, including operational constraints, funding limitations, and workforce shortages. While Rugby, North Dakota’s Heart of America Medical Center (HAMC) anticipated difficulties ahead, Wipfli and JLG saw opportunities — helping streamline operations, improve the bottom line, retain workforce, and create a sustainable path for local, community-focused healthcare.
In a state where over 40% of the population relies on rural healthcare, the team reveals how innovative operational and financial improvements, thoughtful master planning, and modern architectural strategies created a new sustainable model of care closer to home, without big-city commutes. HAMC is now a state-of-the-art hospital and clinic, complete with an upgraded surgical center, a Chemo Infusion Center, and the Living Center, a residential-style swing bed department. HAMC further offers a comprehensive therapy department, a 24/7 Wellness Center, staff respite areas, a retail pharmacy, and a Main Street featuring a “Grab-N-Go” community café.
Through thoughtful operational and design innovations, HAMC is revitalizing healthcare and rebuilding the foundation of a strong workforce, a vibrant region, and thriving local businesses — all recognizing that resident well-being is key to their own success. This collaboration has transformed a non-profit healthcare system into a unifying force for the community, reinforcing its vital reach across a 50-mile radius. Discover how modernized medical services, patient-centered environments, and community-inspired spaces have brought the heart of Rugby into the Heart of America Medical Center.
Objectives:
- Navigate new and innovative operational models, renovation, and new construction of a rural critical access hospital, overcoming the barriers of funding, capital, and workforce constraints.
- Learn new opportunities and tactics for creating a more sustainable operational model for delivering rural healthcare and designing with intention.
- Identify opportunities to enhance operational efficiency, improve financial results, and decipher key strategic design principles that foster cross-department collaboration and efficient staffing — reinforcing the future of rural workforce recruitment and retention.
Target audience: Hospital
Todd Medd, AIA, AIA, NCARB, Healthcare Practice Studio Leader – JLG Architects
As the leader of JLG Architects’ Healthcare Practice Studio, Todd Medd brings over two decades of specialized expertise in 21st-century ambulatory, acute care, healthcare education, and laboratory spaces. He is an award-winning architect, national expert, and published author on the innovation of rural healthcare, telehealth, trauma-informed design, and mental and behavioral healthcare design. Medd is a passionate industry pacesetter in the integration of new technologies, workforce retention, and operational excellence on rural healthcare campuses across the country.
Erik Christenson, CEO, Heart of America Medical Center (HAMC)
Eric has over 25 years of healthcare experience, including 20 years dedicated to HAMC's pharmacy department. At HAMC, he has also served as a staff pharmacist, director of pharmacy, and COO. Christenson holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from NDSU and an MBA in Rural Healthcare Administration from St. Scholastica University. He is a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator in North Dakota, a member of the North Dakota Hospital Association, and a board member of the North Dakota Rural Health Association. Beyond healthcare, Christenson runs a small family farm, provides prison ministry, and volunteers at his local church.
Nick Smith, MHA, Partner and Rural Healthcare Leader, Wipfli LLP
Nick Smith leads Wipfli LLP's national rural healthcare practice. He has traveled across the country for over 20 years, helping rural hospitals achieve stronger financial results, access financing, and implement generational rural hospital renovation and replacement projects through facility and financial planning. Nick’s expertise crosses all aspects of the healthcare ecosystem, including market planning and strategy, finance and reimbursement, operations, and facility planning. Nick also provides Technical Assistance to struggling rural hospitals as a Contractor to USDA and the National Rural Health Association.