Newstrack: UIHC reopens shuttered inpatient unit in Downtown Campus

IOWA CITY — Following years of financial decline and months of backroom negotiations, University of Iowa Health Care in January 2024 bought the bankrupt Mercy Iowa City for $37.4 million — ending the community hospital’s 150-year run.

Upon closure, the university transformed the 194-bed Mercy Hospital into a 234-bed UIHC Downtown Campus, promising to spend more than $25 million upgrading the 455,111-square-foot hospital to meet its standards.

Background

A 10-year facility condition assessment of the Downtown Campus — conducted in March 2024 — estimated $21.2 million in “immediate” needs, escalating to $167.9 million by 2034. Electrical and mechanical needs were among the costliest in the report — including to a unit commonly referred to “3 Center.”

Buttressed by that assessment, UIHC officials in September took a series of Downtown Campus projects to the Board of Regents for approval — including one bucket of improvements labeled “hospital renovations.”

That work aimed to “renovate select areas of the hospital to allow for new and existing clinical services to grow and meet the required regulatory and physical space needs.”

Chief Executive Officer Brad Haws, who leads the system’s clinical enterprise, at the time told regents the main UIHC campus adjacent Kinnick Stadium is overcapacity.

He said administrators were considering a handful of services it might eventually move to the Downtown Campus, including obstetrics/midwifery, family medicine, gastrointestinal endoscopy, operating room utilization, and heart and vascular services.

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What’s happened since

UIHC officials in April 2025 announced that the 3 Center inpatient unit — after being closed for many years — would “soon be refurbished and reopened.” The 26-bed unit, officials said, would be dedicated to family medicine — offering acute care for patients and learning opportunities for residents in the “community-based hospital setting.”

“The reopening of this unit is an important milestone for our downtown campus,” Downtown Campus Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Miller said in a statement. “We are excited to continue to identify opportunities to expand access for Iowans.”

Earlier this month, those commitments materialized with UIHC’s official reopening of 3 Center as a new inpatient family medicine unit.

“Over the past several months, construction crews have renovated and optimized the unit for inpatient family medicine care, improving its technology, infrastructure, and workflow efficiency for faculty and staff,” officials said in announcing its reopening.

Prior to the unit’s opening, the university’s family medicine inpatients had been housed in its main John Colloton Pavilion. By opening the Downtown Campus unit, "patients have more options for where to receive their care,“ officials said.

Inpatient family medicine typically houses patients with certain heart conditions, diabetes, severe infections, and kidney disease — excluding those needing intensive or surgical care.

“The reopening of this unit is an exciting milestone for all of us who have been dedicated to this campus for many years,” Downtown Campus Associate Chief Nursing Officer Kim Volk said. “Every improvement we are making enhances our ability to deliver high-quality, compassionate care in an environment that is easy for patients to navigate, with a personal touch from familiar faces.”

The revamped unit also will offer family medicine residents an opportunity to learn and work alongside faculty in a community setting.

“By reviving this unit and converting it into an inpatient family medicine unit, we’re delivering on our commitment to maintaining and improving access to high-quality, compassionate, and hospitable care in our community,” UIHC Vice President of Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson said.

In the first year after acquiring the former Mercy Iowa City, UIHC saw more than 72,000 patients at its Downtown Campus.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com