NEWS CHRONICLE PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Stacy Koeppen, the new CEO/executive director of the Tama County Public Health and Home Care department, is pictured outside of her office in downtown Toledo.

Stacy Koeppen has an extensive background in the home health care and nursing fields, and as of July 1, she’s putting those skills to use as the new CEO/executive director of the Tama County Public Health and Home Care department.

Koeppen, who holds a master’s degree in health care administration, previously served as the director of nursing at BrightStar Care in Cedar Rapids, and she has spent most of her career bouncing between Critical Access Hospitals and home health work. Before that, she was the administrator at Physmed Home Health in Iowa City and the branch manager for Angels Care Home Health in Denison not far from where she grew up.

“I have actually been in small communities, small towns (and) worked in smaller counties the majority of my career, so I’m familiar with a lot of the needs in the smaller communities. And I have discovered recently that I am more of a small-town girl, not a city girl,” she said. “I just saw that the (Tama County) job was posted, and this was something I’ve been working towards, obviously, with the education and the job experience and stuff. So I applied, and here I am.”

In rural counties across the state and the country, public health employees wear a wide variety of hats, and Koeppen said she would like to focus on providing services that residents might otherwise have to go elsewhere to receive as Tama County does not have a hospital within its boundaries — whether they come through mobile units or occasional clinics on a weekly or monthly basis.

“Right now, so far in my one week that I’ve been here, I’ve discovered that Tama County has a lot of dog and animal bites, so I’d like to create a program to just educate the public on signs to watch for so maybe that can be prevented — because honestly, nobody really wants an animal bite or to deal with the repercussions of your animal biting somebody else,” she said. “The other thing is we’re looking at maybe seeing if we can get a mobile mammogram unit in — I think Mercy in Cedar Rapids has one — for Breast Cancer Awareness Month or something like that.”

Because of its geographical proximity to several hospitals depending on where in the county one lives, Koeppen plans to work with all of them to ensure those services are available.

“We’re here for Tama County, and we just want to provide whatever we can to them,” she said.

Currently, the department has four full-time nurses, one part-time as needed nurse, Environmental Health Officer/Sanitarian Chris Behrens, three office employees and four home health aides on staff. When the new board of supervisors took over at the beginning of the year, Public Health faced budget cuts and ultimately unfounded rumors that it would cease operations, but Koeppen hopes she can lead a new, more positive chapter for the agency going forward.

She feels that the current staffing level is adequate, but she would eventually like to add a public health nurse focused on keeping referrals within Tama County and free up the other nurses to “balance out that need.”

“As we grow, we’re going to need more staff, of course,” Koeppen said.

The new director also plans to work with the state on assistance with vaccines, and the department staff will be out and about in the mobile RV at events like the Tama County Fair.

“Word of mouth goes a long way in these smaller communities. I mean, we could advertise until we’re blue in the face, but it only goes so far. So word of mouth, quality of care, patients come first. People in Tama County will be our priority, and we’ll do what we can to make them great and healthy,” Koeppen said.

Outside of work, Koeppen, a proud parent and pet owner, is married to a physical therapist who grew up in Keystone, not far from Tama County’s eastern border. She is currently commuting to her new job from Cedar Rapids.