Health Care and Medicine

In both defense and attack mode as a lawsuit against it looms, MercyOne has asked a higher court to weigh in on the recent dismissal of its appeal of Mercy Iowa City’s bankruptcy liquidation plan while also denying the defunct hospital documents it wants for any lawsuit it files against MercyOne.

With Board of Regents permission to start work on the first of three phases for its more than $1.5 billion patient tower, University of Iowa Health Care is seeking an outside firm to audit in real time what is expected to be the largest construction project in state history.

After more than a decade leading University of Iowa Health Care’s orthopedics department from its basement dwellings on the main Iowa City campus, J. Lawrence “Larry” Marsh is stepping down as chair — just months after moving the department into a new 469,060-square-foot orthopedics hospital in North Liberty.

An Iowa Falls nurse who has been ordered three times to undergo training on ethics is again facing disciplinary action from the Iowa Board of Nursing.

Mercy Urology Clinic and Hall-Perrine Cancer Center are partnering with the Cedar Rapids Kernels to honor prostate cancer survivors and raise awareness about the disease during a special game at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 29, at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Although MercyOne for nearly two years has criticized a bankrupt Mercy Iowa City for not paying its outstanding $31,524 bill -- citing that debt repeatedly as grounds to fight Mercy’s liquidation plan and demand thousands of documents and emails -- MercyOne now is refusing the hospital’s payment.

Plans by Senate Republicans to scale back a Medicaid provider tax that states like Iowa use to fund their Medicaid program could deal a greater financial blow to rural hospitals, state and national hospital groups warn.

A federal judge in Iowa has blocked key parts of a Biden administration rule mandating minimum staffing levels in nursing homes across the country. The ruling comes after Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird co-led a multi-state lawsuit, joined by 19 other states trying to block the law.

Two unvaccinated children and an unvaccinated adult from Johnson County were added Thursday to the list of Iowans infected by measles, bringing the total identified cases in the state to six, according to state and county health officials.

Madeline Overman, a critical care nurse and organ donor coordinator, said there may be some people who don’t think of organ donation as something positive when their loved one has died or is dying, but the people who make that “selfless gift” find hope in helping others live on.

“With this technology, what we've been able to do for patients is really revolutionary. And the University of Iowa is at the cutting edge now, both in delivering the care and training the next generation of surgeons to do it.”

On the heels of a White House memo last week threatening the hundreds of millions in Medicaid-related directed payment revenue University of Iowa Health Care has been getting for the last three years, administrators Wednesday said they could rethink plans for a planned $1.5 billion inpatient tower on the main UIHC campus.