Articles Tagged: UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids

With fewer of them since the pandemic began, hospice volunteers in Eastern Iowa listen to the stories that many don’t hear in the final stages of people’s lives.

Henry was the most popular name for boys born at Cedar Rapids hospitals in 2021. For girls, Ava and Nora took the number one picks.

Ava and Henry are 2021’s top girl’s and boy’s baby names respectively at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s in Cedar Rapids, but those names fell down the ranking when including lists from other UnityPoint hospitals in Eastern Iowa.

Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids have postponed all elective and nonemergent surgeries through Christmas, effective immediately. The decision comes just a day after Iowa broke records for COVID-19 hospitalizations, surpassing more than 800 patients this week.

Throughout much of the pandemic, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics offered its cardiac rehabilitation services through a virtual format, helping patients from the comfort of their own homes. But other hospitals opted to keep rehabilitation facilities open, noting that most patients prefer the benefits of in-person care.

As of this month, Sue Mincks has officially flown 1,000 times as a flight paramedic at the LifeGuard Air Ambulance at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital. She joined the crew in 2005.

The kit is designed to add to a toolbox of coping skills that are helpful throughout life, but particularly as individuals work through the grief process.

Kris Hansen, CEO of Western Home Services, discusses the “household-like” care model behind the joint project with UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids. The senior living community is expected to open in 2023.

A bed warmer is an open bed with radiant heat. It allows the medical team to safely assess and evaluate a baby after birth, while keeping the baby warm and safe.

Due to an increase patient count, local hospitals are temporarily limiting elective surgeries and procedures in an effort to preserve hospital capacity for emergency cases and to continue serving the community, officials say.

The West Des Moines-based health system announced Thursday all 33,000 employees, regardless of whether they provide direct patient care or not, must be vaccinated by Nov. 1. Those who choose not to comply face termination or voluntary resignation.

UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids announced construction of a $25 million senior living community in northeast Cedar Rapids called The Cottages at UnityPoint Way. Built in partnership with Cedar Falls-based Western Home Services, the facility will provide care for residents with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss.

The free camp helps kids learn coping mechanisms for dealing with loss and grief

Between both Cedar Rapids hospitals, only one vaccinated individual, who had underlying health conditions, has been hospitalized for COVID-19. The vast majority of admissions in recent months have been among residents who are not immunized, proving to local health care officials the vaccine is effective in preventing serious illness and death.

Effective June 24, UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital will expand its visitor hours and restrictions on visiting age will be lowered to include those aged 12 and older.