These people will serve on Polk County hospital's next board
Candidates Kathleen "Kacey" Davis, Marc Ward and Shaimaa Aly will join the board of Polk County's public hospital, beating out Wayne Ford, Thaddeus Franklin Jr. and Bruce Schmiedlin.
The three winning Broadlawns Medical Center board candidates will join the seven-person board which oversees the Des Moines hospital funded by Polk County taxpayer dollars. In 2021, the hospital's revenue stream included more than $73 million from the property tax levy.
The 200-bed hospital, which employs at least 1,200 full-time staff and about 100 physicians, is a safety net medical provider for community members. The majority of its patients rely on noncommercial health insurance plans, such as Medicaid. The board members will each serve a six-year term on the public hospital's Board of Trustees.
Each candidate ran a campaign based on their respective experience in health care or social service industries.
Improving mental health care services became a central theme of the campaign, with Ward, Aly and Davis each saying they hoped to improve access and accessibility of the services at the hospital.
These are the directors who will lead Polk County's public hospital
Ward, the only incumbent who chose to run for reelection, works as an attorney with Fredrikson and Bryon law firm. He previously told the Des Moines Register he sought reelection "primarily to see through the success we've seen so far," particularly the hospital's ability to pull itself out of financial straits in recent years. He said his priority is to maintain the hospital's "extraordinary" no-debt status, while also investing in mental health and brain service care.
"As the only incumbent running my reelection is an endorsement of the direction Broadlawns has taken and the success it has earned," Ward said in an email to the Register.
Davis, 37, is a Des Moines native and a family nurse practitioner. She works as the director of health and wellness at a local company and also spends part of her time at a local community health center. Davis — who said she has witnessed firsthand the obstacles vulnerable members of the community face in terms of access to healthcare — centered her campaign around improving accessibility by establishing a mobile medical and dental clinic and other similar services.
Aly, a 41-year-old senior operational risk manager for a large metro-area home mortgage company, also said she hopes to prioritize mental health services at Broadlawns. Aly, who was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, serves on the board of the West Des Moines Human Rights Commission and with Capital Crossroads. She volunteers with local nonprofits to help immigrant women and youth. Aly said those experiences, coupled with her educational background in economics and statistics, would help her ramp up the hospital's fundraising efforts to better address the needs of the community.
"Now, the race is over but the real work begins," Aly wrote in a statement to the Register. She wrote she was ready to put in the effort to ensure marginalized communities receive world-class health care services regardless of their ZIP code.
Ford said Wednesday that he was considering asking for a recount.
Schmiedlin, a 58-year-old Grimes resident who owns his own tax firm, said even though he did not win Tuesday night, he still feels optimistic that the hospital is in good hands.
“Though I was not selected to help improve the patient care experience at Broadlawns, the campaign statements I heard from most candidates give me some comfort that Patient Rights no longer will be forgotten like they had been by the outgoing Trustees,” he wrote in an email to the Register.
Des Moines Register reporter Michaela Ramm contributed reporting.
Francesca Block is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at FBlock@registermedia.com or on Twitter at @francescablock3.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Broadlawns board results; Marc Ward Shaimaa Aly, Kacey Davis win
