MercyOne Newton Medical Center created $69.7M impact on local economy in 2022-23

Last year, MercyOne Newton Medical Center generated 389.3 jobs that added $21,622,460 in total wages and $69,706,444 in total gross domestic product to Jasper County’s economy, according to the latest study by the Iowa Hospital Association.

“Hospitals have a significant positive impact on the local economies they serve which is why it is so vital to have a strong hospital in rural communities like ours,” Chad Kelley, Chief Operating Officer at MercyOne Newton Medical Center, said. “Hospitals are economic drivers which utilize local businesses to support operations, thereby creating jobs not only within the hospital’s walls but externally in the community as well.”

One component of the total economic stimulus hospitals provide to local communities includes charitable community benefit services. Community benefits are activities to improve health status and increase access to health care, including uncompensated charity care, health screenings, support groups, counselling, immunizations, nutrition services and transportation programs. “MercyOne Newton Medical Center contributed more than $500,000 in charity care and community benefit services alone in the last fiscal year. More than 1,100 individuals directly benefited from these community service programs in our local community,” Kelley said.

The study was compiled from hospital-submitted data to the American Hospital Association’s annual survey of hospitals. The study found that Iowa hospitals employed 145,252 people in 2022. As an income source, hospitals provided over $9.3 billion in wages. Hospital expenses accounted for more than $21.5 billion of the state’s gross domestic product.

Overall, MercyOne Newton helped create 3.74 percent of all jobs, 4.72 percent of all wages, and 6.01 percent of all gross domestic product in Jasper County during the last 2022-23 fiscal year. MercyOne Newton Medical Center is committed and proud to deliver health care services to residents of Jasper County and the surrounding areas both today and into the future.