Press Release

Long-time Physician Recounts Burgess Progress

As Burgess Health Center celebrates the end of its $10 million expansion and renovation project at its August 24 Open House and Med Staff Appreciation Event, and marks its 45th anniversary, a veteran family doctor recalls founding memories.

Dr. Bill Garred, known affectionately by most as Dr. Bill, played an amazing role in the opening of Burgess in 1963. He had arrived in Onawa in 1955 and was among the handful of physicians serving the former Onawa hospital that then operated in a wooden structure.

When the state informed the hospital that it must operate in a new and safer structure made of brick, the challenge of building a new hospital was daunting, according to Dr. Bill. Two earlier campaigns had failed.

"I said then 'I never raised a dime in my life but I won't stay here without a hospital,'"

Dr. Bill recalls. As he volunteered to lead the fund-raising, others called him "crazy."

Dr. Bill went to the local newspaper, and business leaders for support. He sought government Hill Burton funds, other federal funding and local funds. The top contribution literally came from stock certificates, forgotten in the donor's shoebox. Yet after nearly two years, a local banker said it was time to quit.

"I was pretty devastated. I said 'please give me 30 days,'" Dr. Bill says. "I went home and was terribly distraught. My wife, Marilyn, said 'pray on it and the answer will come.'"

The answer came when Dr. Bill remembered a magazine article about a company that helped non-profit organizations sell special "IDA" bonds through the city. He found the magazine and the company name at the bottom of a large pile, ultimately connected with an Omaha consultant, and the bond sale paid off. "It came in three days before the deadline," he says smiling.

The community was extremely supportive in developing the new hospital, he notes.

"Without their support it never would have happened," Dr. Bill says. "We enjoyed wide support from communities surrounding Onawa. We put together a board that reflected that too, with residents from many communities."

Dr. Bill, a Kentucky native, has enjoyed his many years of medicine in the heart of the Midwest.
"I don't think there is a hospital that can surpass us," Dr. Bill says. "When something new (in healthcare) develops, we get it. We have the latest, the same as large hospitals. I think people appreciate Burgess. I never hear anything except how wonderful our hospital serves our patients."

Progress is evident everywhere, he says.

X-ray machines now work next to a 16-slice CT scanner, 4D ultrasound and digital mammography at Burgess. Mobile PET/CT and MRI scanners serve patients, too. Computerized lab equipment, an automated patient medication system, digital laparoscopic technology and a video guided physical therapy system have further advanced patient care.

"I call it my impossible dream," Dr. Bill says of Burgess. "It is yet unfolding. I know it will continue to advance in the years to come."

To honor all the physicians and mid-level providers of Burgess medical staff, the public is encouraged to bring a card with messages of appreciation to the Open House at Burgess August 24. The picnic lunch, catered by Staley's, from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. is free. Hospital tours will be offered.