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Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
CCM Health breaks ground for $2.4M child care center in Montevideo, Minnesota
May 31---- As groundbreaking ceremonies go, this one was complicated. Twenty-nine children had first digs at tossing the dirt as hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for a $2.4 million child care center on its Montevideo campus. "This is what it's really about, all these kids," said Brian Lovdahl, CEO of CCM Health, as the 29 children — most of them preschool age — were led by staff from the existing child care center to the site of the groundbreaking. As a point of fact, the rules and regulations involved with child care are complicated too, but worth the navigating, according to Lovdahl. Having child care available is a definite help for the health system's staff. The nearly 350 employees skew younger than is the average for health care facilities in the country, meaning there are many with young children, he explained. The availability of on-campus child care benefits both staff recruitment and retention, according to the CEO. A new provider had no more than inked his contract when the first thing he mentioned was the desire to enroll a child in the center, Lovdahl said. CCM Health became one of the first small health care systems in the country to offer child care services when it opened its existing center in January 2020. It continues to receive inquiries from other systems about how to make it happen, according to Lovdahl. The move into the new facility should happen in October, if not sooner. Groundwork is completed and the footprint for the new facility is readied, all ahead of schedule, according to the CEO. The new, 5,000-square-foot center will offer more than three times the space of the existing facility. The new facility will be licensed for 70 children. The current facility is licensed for 31 children but serves around 40 when counting drop-ins. It is located in a building housing the ambulance operations. The new facility will be located on the site where the original Montevideo Veterans Affairs Clinic stood. The location puts the young children no more than 60 feet away from the nearest doctor in CCM Health's Medical Clinic and Hospital if they should need medical help. It also means nursing mothers can drop over to the center during breaks. Staffing needs led to the decision more than six years ago to open an on-campus child center. Lovdahl said CCM Health was being served by traveling nurses in 2018-19 to meet staffing needs. Permanent staff members expressed an interest in working more hours, he said, but they cited the lack of child care as a major impediment to doing so. It took about eight months from the beginning of the discussions on child care needs to the opening of existing center. In about six months, it reached capacity, and has pretty much stayed at that level ever since, according to Lovdahl. Operating a child care center can be challenging, but Lovdahl pointed out that the value goes well beyond the health care center. The new spaces for the children of CCM Health's employees should free up spaces in other child care operations in Montevideo, he said. As in most communities, there is a gap between the number of available and needed child care spots. Montevideo had a shortage of 145 child care spaces according to a June 2024 analysis by the nonprofit and funded by the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families. The new facility will feature a prairie-style architecture with large windows in its corners. It will be divided inside according to ages. It will hold a commercial kitchen and feature a modern security system. An outdoor patio area will be available. CCM Health had studied the possibility of re-purposing the former Montevideo VA Clinic, which opened in 2002. It was found to be cost-prohibitive to renovate the three-section modular building that had served as the clinic, and it was razed. Lovdahl used the groundbreaking as an opportunity to thank the CCM Health board of directors, Montevideo City Council and the Chippewa County Board of Commissioners for their support of the child care project. The city of Montevideo and Chippewa County jointly own CCM Health. The existing child care area within the ambulance building will be returned to its former use as a training and conference center.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
CCM Health to break ground on $2.4M child care center in Montevideo, Minnesota
Mar. 10---- in Montevideo will break ground this spring on a new childcare center for staff serving the medical center. The C on March 4 approved approximately $2.4 million in bids for construction of the approximately 5,000-square-foot facility. The approved the project the day before, according to information provided to the commissioners. The county and city jointly own the medical center. The new child care facility will have the capacity to serve 70 children, Brian Lovdahl, CEO of CCM Health, told the commissioners. It will replace a child care center now located in a portion of the ambulance building. It has a capacity to serve up to 31 children at a time, and is serving a total of 40 children with a waiting list, he said. The new facility will be located on the site of the former Veterans Affairs Clinic, which is located across the street from the ambulance garage. Work will get underway in early April to raze the former clinic, with expectations of beginning construction on the new facility at the end of the month, according to the CEO. Plans call for using the existing child care center space in the ambulance building as a conference center and training area. The area served a similar role previously, and minimal work is anticipated in restoring it for its former purpose. CCM Health went out for bids in January for the project and has a $325,000 contingency fund for it. The availability of child care services on the medical campus has been very important to its ability to recruit and retain staff, Lovdahl told the commissioners. CCM Health has a 91% staff retention rate, or a turnover rate of 9%. The industry as a whole reports turnover rates in the range of 18% to 25%, he said. The average age of registered nurses with CCM Health is 37, as compared to an average age of 52 for RNs in the U.S. In discussions with the commissioners, the CEO said CCM Health sets its fees for the child care center based on the market rate in the area. It does not want to undercut other providers, he explained. The child care center is available only for the children of staff serving the medical center. The availability of the child care is seen as helping free up space at other child care providers in the area, he noted. The need to limit the child care to the children of staff is due to the Medicare reimbursement system. CCM Health is financially supporting the availability of the child care services. A portion of costs for staff services can be reimbursed through Medicare as part of a complex reimbursement process, he told the commissioners. CCM Health is hopeful of seeing the project completed and welcoming its first children in October of this year. In response to questions, the CEO said he did not know if recent tariffs would affect any of the project costs. The bids awarded for the project include essentially all of the materials and labor for the entire project, with the exception of a few items that did not receive specific bids.
