Here’s an interesting statistic: It’s estimated that more than 500 Iowa residents each year seek rehabilitation care outside the state after discharge from a hospital because there aren’t sufficient in-state facilities available.

That figure is based on Iowa Hospital Association data that showed 14 percent of patients discharged directly to an inpatient rehab facility didn’t show up at an Iowa facility, which suggests they went to such a facility in another state. It’s one of several interesting facts I gleaned from documents filed by Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health in making their cases for expanded rehab facilities in Greater Des Moines. 

Central Iowa’s two competing medical centers each received approval last week to significantly expand their inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and that should mean more specialists available at those facilities, not to mention more staff hired to support them. 

Mercy Medical Center-Des Moines will build a new 50-bed rehab hospital in Clive, while UnityPoint Health-Des Moines will expand its downtown Younker Rehabilitation Center by 22 additional beds, for a total of 49 beds. Both facilities will care for adults recovering from conditions such as stroke, neurological disease, injury to the brain or spinal cord, and other long-term illnesses or injuries.

Mercy Medical Center forecasts that it will hire 142 additional people to staff its planned 50-bed rehabilitation hospital, which will be managed through a joint venture with Kindred Healthcare Inc., one of the largest providers of rehabilitation care in the country. 

Mercy said it will seek to fill the majority of its staffing needs with professionals from Mercy and through its established recruiting channels. It said it will particularly rely on its relationships with Mercy College of Health Sciences as well as Des Moines University and Drake University to help find qualified nursing and non-nursing applicants. 

Likewise, UnityPoint Health said it plans to hire about 60 additional staff for the expanded Younker facility over a three-year period. 

In addition to a boost in hiring for rehabilitation nursing and therapist positions over the next couple of years, UnityPoint Health officials say expanding Younker Rehabilitation should help Iowa recruit more physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians — which are in short supply relative to other states. 

In its application for a Certificate of Need, UnityPoint Health officials noted that Iowa is far below the national average for physical medicine and rehab (PM&R) physicians. 

On average, there are 3.5 PM&R physicians for every 100,000 people in the U.S.; Iowa averages under just two of these specialists per 100,000 people. Younker Rehabilitation currently has five PM&R physicians, and there are just 20 of these specialists practicing in its 14-county service region. If the state were at the U.S. average, the region would have 34 of these specialists. 

“A larger rehabilitation unit is critical to success in recruiting additional physicians to the hospital,” UnityPoint officials wrote.