Articles Tagged: Mercy Iowa City

As part of the ownership transfer, about 1,000 former Mercy Iowa City “team members” — including 45 physicians and 33 advanced practice providers — will become UIHC employees.

A week before Mercy Iowa City’s 150-year history comes to an end – with the bankrupt hospital transitioning to University of Iowa ownership Jan. 31 – the Board of Regents will meet Wednesday to consider new bylaws for the former Mercy campus, renamed UI Health Care Medical Center Downtown.

Woman arrested for Mercy Hospital Clinic threats, new ownership of former Lindale Mall Sears

The Iowa City Police Department is investigating threats made over the phone Thursday to a Mercy Hospital Clinic in Iowa City, which caused Mercy Hospitals and Regina Schools to lock down.

With the $28 million sale of Mercy Iowa City to the University of Iowa just over two weeks from closing, the 150-year-old community hospital’s largest bondholders are seeking court affirmation they will get the vast majority of that money “promptly.”

The new chief integration officer that University of Iowa Health Care has appointed to manage its complex merger with Mercy Iowa City — following UIHC’s $28 million bankruptcy acquisition of the community hospital — could earn $780,000 this year, according to her professional services agreement.

A letter to Mercy Iowa City patients went out over the weekend about its transition to University of Iowa Health Care ownership asking them to “continue to schedule and go to your appointments as usual.”

Just weeks away from “day one” of a merged University of Iowa-Mercy Iowa City model through which the 150-year-old Mercy Hospital will morph into UI Health Care’s “downtown campus,” job offers are going out to more than 1,100 prospective transitioning employees.

As the University of Iowa continues its takeover of Mercy Iowa City, administrators are sharing more details about the transition — including the appointment this week of Deborah Berini to lead management and integration with the now-bankrupt community hospital.

Among the complexities of a Mercy Iowa City bankruptcy sale to the University of Iowa is its electronic medical system transition – with any gap or abrupt termination of system operations posing “significant” threat to Mercy and its patients.

When the University of Iowa finalizes its purchase of the 150-year-old Mercy Iowa City campus, it will be renamed “University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center Downtown,” according to a rebranding UIHC announced Thursday.

Among Preston Hollow’s concerns with additional delays is the millions Mercy is accumulating in attorney fee.The bondholder also argues that extending Mercy’s exclusive right to file a plan that ultimately fails to garner support would hamstring bondholders for months, “resulting in over $10 million of dollars of lost value.”

In total so far, a Chicago law firm representing Mercy Hospital in its bankruptcy case has accumulated $6.2 million in fees against a hospital that — since its Chapter 11 petition through Oct. 31 — had reported a $13.7 million operating loss.

With a bankrupt Mercy Iowa City already inciting objections to the more than $1 million it's accrued in attorney fees tied to Chapter 11 proceedings, the hospital’s interim management and restructuring firm last week submitted another $1 million bill.

Since University of Iowa Health Care more than two years ago initiated efforts to take over Mercy Iowa City, an outside Chicago-based law firm has billed it $1.8 million for “transactional and regulatory assistance arising in connection with a potential affiliation involving Mercy Iowa City.”