New Healthcare Facility Being Built In Cedar Falls

Construction is underway on a new healthcare facility in one of the fastest-growing retail areas of Cedar Falls. Officials with UnityPoint Health-Waterloo announced the $30 million dollar project during a beam-signing ceremony this morning (Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015).

The 90,000-square-foot facility is being built at 5100 Prairie Parkway as part of the Pinnacle Prairie Development. When complete in the winter of 2016, the three-story structure will consolidate a number of specialty practices under one roof.

"We want to give people the lowest cost, most-coordinated care setting in an ambulatory setting before they get sick," said Pam Delagardelle, President/CEO of UnityPoint Health-Waterloo. "It's really a focus on prevention. We still have a need for hospitals, but we're making an attempt to provide better preventive care for people so they stay well."

Prairie Parkway is designed to be a one-stop, patient-centered medical home for the whole family. The campus will provide the infrastructure for UnityPoint Health's coordinated approach to primary care for all ages -- from obstetrics and pediatrics through family and internal medicines.

The new facility will offer a full range of services, including:

• OB-GYN
• Pediatrics
• Family Medicine
• Internal Medicine
• Urgent Care
• Lab
• Radiology
• Ocupational, physical and speech therapy
• Behavioral health services
• Retail and drive-through pharmacy
• Rotating specialty clinics

"We think it helps us really deliver on our brand promise of care coordination," Delagardelle said. "This particular project is not an acute care hospital; it's not meant for hospital beds. It's really a clinic setting.

UnityPoint plans to staff the facility with about 30 physicians and mid-level providers, around 40 nurses and approximately 70 additional staff. A number of clinics currently located in other areas of Cedar Falls -- Urgent Care-Prairie Medical Park, OB/GYN-Cedar Falls, Family Medicine-Greenhill and Family Medicine-Cedarloo -- will all move to Prairie Parkway when the medical center opens.

"We have been in the works of this project for over three years," Delagardelle said. "The conceptual discussion began three years ago and it got board approval a couple of years ago."

Delagardelle stated that UnityPoint Health will cover about $26 million of the $30 million project, with the remaining $4 million coming through private support. At the beam-signing ceremony, officials announced that half the private-support money has already been raised.