By Dana Becker
becker_d@iccc.cc.ia.us
James Roetman is the Chief Executive Officer and Administrator for Pocahontas Community Hospital.
His journey started back at Iowa Central after graduating from Prairie of Gowrie, which is now part of the Southeast Valley school district.
Roetman completed his degree in 1992 as part of the first Radiologic Technolgy program at the school alongside 16 others.
While he calls that decision "a pretty good" one, the other part of his Triton journey didn't go as well.
"I went to Iowa Central to play basketball and didn't have a clue on what I wanted to do," Roetman said. "Basketball, though, didn't work out so well for me. I did however enjoy getting to know Coach (Dennis) Pilcher and enjoyed keeping in touch with him over the years."
Roetman's son, Austin, recently completed his career at Briar Cliff University, helping the program reach the national tournament twice.
"I have a great appreciation for what Austin has done because of the work that it takes (to be a student-athlete in college)," Roetman said. "I wasn't willing to do that at that level, so kudos to all of those who are and do.
"Of course, I also tell him I wasn't 6-foot-8, which helps."
By following his sister, who was a nurse, into the healthcare world, Roetman developed the necessary first steps into what has become a life-long career.
He began as an X-ray tech at Pocahontas Community Hospital after graduating, holding a position in the radiology department until 2004 when the hospital selected him as the CEO.
"They took a chance on a kid who wanted to make Pocahontas his home and for that decision by them, I will be forever grateful," he said. "I met my future wife, Julie, who was from Palmer and lived in Pocahontas."
Iowa Central would become a family tradition, as all three of Roetman's older siblings graduated from the school.
"My two brothers graduated in law enforcement and my sister in nursing," he said. "My family knew and had a relationship with Iowa Central, so it was an easy choice for me to make.
"The basketball part of it intrigued me, especially since at that time I didn't know what I wanted to do. They did not have near the programs then that they do now, but it was a fairly common choice for those that graduated in the area to go and get their first two years of college out of the way at a lower cost."
Memories were made during his time on campus including "eating a hamburger with wavy rippled potato chips with ketchup on a daily basis."
"The campus was way different as the only housing was the towers," Roetman said. "It was very small with just a few buildings. I remember playing ping pong in the rec area of the Triton Inn. I also thought it was pretty nice for being so close to home. The instructors were very good and similar to our teachers in high school in how they allowed you to become friends and know them on a personal basis."
Changes around the campus are evident to anyone that has stepped foot at Iowa Central over the past decade. That growth of the school has continued through the work of current President Dr. Dan Kinney.
"It's nuts now," Roetman said. "When they started adding the housing units and then the parking garage, new cafeteria and new buildings, it's just been an amazing transition compared to what it was 30 years ago. As I drive through there now it's hard to remember where things used to be although I still know where we had to run all the 200's for basketball my first year there when we were doing preseason training.
"That area has lots of memories for many, many people including the person who was standing at the end yelling 'too slow' and telling us we needed to do it over. There has to be a ton of credit to Dan and the people before him who invested in that college and saw a vision that maybe not everyone saw but look at how it has turned out now.
"From a health care perspective, if it were not for Iowa Central, many of our local hospitals would have and would continue to struggle with staffing even more than what we do today.
Roetman has held his current position for 16 years and says the main reason for his work is "being able to make an impact on the lives of the people we serve."
"The people who know me or who have heard me talk before will remember that phrase but honestly that is the truth," he said. "We are given a chance to care for people during their toughest times and that is not a role any of the healthcare workers take for granted. My role changed in 2004 from giving care to being a person who makes sure the people who give care have everything they need to do that in the best way possible.
"It took some time getting used to because relationships with patients were hard to walk away from on a daily basis. I just knew and had to accept that my role was changed but was also very important. Like all companies you are only as good as the people who you surround yourself with and over the last 28 years I have been surrounded by some awesome people. Some people say that providing healthcare is easier in a small rural setting but I disagree
"I say it's harder because we know the people we are taking care of and our own expectations are very high in the care that we want to give them because we will see them at the grocery store or at church or at the game and we want to make sure we have done the best that we can do. Over the years I have become involved in many committees at the state and national level, and have formed great relationships with my peers around the state. I work very closely with our regional CEO's at Humboldt, Lake City, Sac City, Storm Lake and Fort Dodge.
"We really have an excellent regional system in place and all of those places have people that care very much about the people they serve as well. Saying I feel very fortunate about how things turned out for me and my family would be an extreme understatement, but all of us know and understand how special it is to live in rural Iowa and that is why we stay here.
"The people of this county have been great supporters of this hospital and that has been going on for over 50 years and will continue for another 50 I am sure. Relationships like the ones that Iowa Central have formed over the years with our hospitals in our regions have allowed all of us to be successful and I think those relationships have also allowed Iowa Central to grow as well."