New Mercy ER in Marion to open Dec. 2

MARION — Mercy Medical Center’s new Marion ER will begin seeing patients Dec. 2.

A community open house will be held at the ER, 999 35th St., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16. Refreshments will be provided, along with tours of the area’s largest freestanding ER, Mercy said in a news release.

A ribbon-cutting at the ER, located next to MercyCare Marion Family Practice and Urgent Care, is set for Nov. 15. It is by invitation only.

On Dec. 2, the Marion ER will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The facility has 12 exam and two trauma rooms; blood-draw and lab services; Imaging services, including X-ray, ultrasound and CT scans; and a helicopter pad for flight needs.

The Marion ER is the second off-site, hospital-based extension of Mercy’s Emergency Department. Mercy’s Hiawatha emergency location opened in 2020 and was the first ER in Iowa available outside of a hospital setting.

Emergency patients at Mercy’s Marion and Hiawatha locations who require additional hospital intervention will be transferred free of charge to Mercy’s downtown hospital.

The opening of Mercy’s new ER follows the opening of a freestanding ER by UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital at 3301 Armar Dr. in Marion in August.

The Cedar Rapids-Marion metro area is the only place in Iowa with multiple, free-standing emergency rooms. Only one other city in Iowa, Bettendorf, has a free-standing emergency room, the Genesis Health Plex, according to Chris Mitchell, president and CEO of the Iowa Hospital Association.