Business Notes for Nov. 3, 2024

The Gazette’s Business Notes is a compendium of the week’s promotions, new hires, certifications, added business lines and business events, among other items, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and the rest of the Corridor. Information and photos can be submitted at thegazette.com/business-notes/submit/

New hires

Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust has announced the following new hires: Angela Nazario Valdez, branch manager, officer; Madison Lantzakis, trust officer; and Paige Wendt, marketing specialist II, officer.

Hills Bank has hired Laura Hughes, senior vice president; and Amber Snow, customer contact center manager, both in its Hills office.

Appointments

Jenny Skogman has been elected has been elected president of the Cedar Rapids Parks Foundation board of directors for 2024-25. The other officers are Dina Haveric, vice president; Pete Carstensen, second vice president; Andrea Shanahan, secretary; Anna White, treasurer; Wade Morris, immediate past president; and Laurie Worden, executive director. The foundation will launch its new Friends of CRPF initiative this fall, with more information at crparkfoundation.org.

Kudos

No. 1 hospital: Newsweek has named UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids as the No. 1 hospital in Iowa on its “America’s Best-in-State Hospital’s” list for 2025. This is the seventh time St. Luke’s has been named to the list, created in partnership with Statista, and the first time in the state’s top spot. The ranks are determined using metrics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the American Hospital Association, the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems patient experience surveys, and voluntary Patient-Reported Outcome Measures survey. This year’s list, viewable on Newsweek’s website, includes 700 hospitals.

No. 1 surgery center: The Surgery Center Cedar Rapids, 1075 First Ave. SE, has been named Iowa’s No. 1 ambulatory surgery center by Newsweek. The ranking, done in partnership with Statista, is based on quality of care, performance data, patient experience and peer recommendations, More than 5,000 surgery centers were analyzed, with 650 centers named to the annual list. “For over 20 years, Surgery Center Cedar Rapids has been proving high- quality, lower-cost care to our patients,” Elly Steffen, the surgery center’s executive director, said. She said out-of-pocket and co-pay charges at the center, with 90 clinical and administrative employees, often are 30 percent to 40 percent less than in other surgical settings.

Emmy: Make-A-Wish Iowa received an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy award for its video, “Gavin’s Wish,” about a Bettendorf boy with cystic fibrosis and his Make-A-Wish trip to Hawaii with his family. The seven-minute video, produced by Trilix and Trilix Studio of Des Moines, can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=yrzqhE0zpmA.

Other news

Children’s dental office opens in Marion: A mother-daughter dental team has opened Iowa Kids Pediatric Dentistry at 100 Sixth Ave., the former McDonald’s building in Marion, where a ribbon-cutting was held Friday. Dr. Kaaren Vargas sold her private dental practice in North Liberty in 2019 and decided to return to dental work with her daughter, Dr. Cecilia Vargas, “to serve young patients in a fun and engaging environment.” The practice offers a range of pediatric dental services, including sedation options. The office also has two therapy dogs, Truly and Pacha. The office phone number is (319) 449-6789.

Ernst names small business of the week: U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, last week named Delta Metals of Decatur County as her small business of the week. In 2013, Marvin Peachey opened Delta Metals in Leon in south-central Iowa, offering services from metal roofing and paneling to designing building packages for “barndominiums.” In 2022, the company opened new headquarters in Lamoni. Ernst, the ranking member on the Senate’s Small Business Committee, is naming one exceptional small business of the week in each of Iowa’s counties during this congressional session.