University of Iowa seeks 10% budget hike for new burn treatment center

IOWA CITY — Among over $2 billion in upcoming University of Iowa Health Care construction — including a $1 billion inpatient tower near Kinnick Stadium — is an expanded burn treatment center, now facing a 10-percent budget increase due to the “challenging and complex nature” of hospital renovation work.

The university this week wants the Iowa Board of Regents to up the project budget from $13.5 to $15 million after four bids to build the upgraded center all came in above expectations. While the lowest bid was 20 percent over budget, the highest was nearly 30 percent above the anticipated cost, according to the UI request.

“These high bids are believed to be the result of the challenging and complex nature of this hospital renovation work,” according to UIHC’s cost-increase request. “For example, the work requires multiple construction phases, temporary construction work and infection control to maintain the existing burn treatment center’s operation.”

The UI health care construction is paid for out of hospital revenues, not state appropriations from the Legislature. The burn center increase is another in a list of budget-hike requests the university has brought before the board in recent years:

In further explaining its need to spend more on the burn treatment center than when regents approved its budget in November 2023, UI officials said, “Complex planning and construction work sequencing would be required to minimize any impact to other hospital areas. Substantial modifications to (mechanical, electrical, plumbing and technology), medical gas and life safety systems are also required.”

Built in 1992, the 32-year-old John Colloton Pavilion houses UIHC’s current burn treatment center, which opened in 1996 and includes 17 intensive and intermediate care beds.

The UIHC location — caring for both adult and pediatric inpatients and outpatients — is one of 77 in the United States verified by the American Burn Association. Of that total, 39 — like UIHC — serve both adults and children, according to the ABA.

In the 2022 calendar year, according to Board of Regents documents from June 2023, UIHC served nearly 900 patients across the state, including 81 from other states — like Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

Through a variety of burn treatment methods — like intravenous fluid resuscitation, skin grafts and hydrotherapy — the university reports most patients staying in the hospital no longer than two weeks, with a smaller portion requiring 15-to-30 day stays and even fewer needing to stay more than 31 days.

‘A functional update’

The proposed 11,500-square-foot renovation would add burn inpatient rooms and a burn outpatient clinic with a dedicated entrance, exam rooms, a procedure room, waiting area and other support spaces.

For the inpatient area, the work would include hydrotherapy rooms, staff and office rooms and aesthetic updates.

“We’ve had small updates over the years, but much of our unit looks the same as it did decades ago,” center director Lucy Wibbenmeyer said in a statement. “Separate tub rooms would give patients more privacy and staff more space to work. Ideally, the rooms would be compatible with giving anesthesia in the space to our patients with more complex, severe burns.”

A separate space for pediatric patients needing hydrotherapy also is important, according to Wibbenmeyer.

“It would be helpful to have something on the ceiling to help provide some comfort and distraction for kids during the procedure like we do for other pediatric areas,” she said.

Important conversations UIHC team members need to have about patient care also provide a compelling need for upgrades, Wibbenmeyer said.

“If the team wants to have a big family meeting, we have to go to the back of the burn unit,” she said. “It’s really not the best space to discuss sensitive topics.

“Our resident physicians chart in a room that’s probably equivalent to your standard walk-in closet. We’ve gotten pretty used to what we deal with, but a functional update would really boost every aspect of what we do and make our patients’ stays more comforting."

If approved, the expansion and renovation is supposed to start this spring and wrap in spring 2025. Aesthetic upgrades then would begin and finish in early 2026.

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