Articles Tagged: University of Iowa Health Care

A month after Mercy Iowa City leadership named a new CEO, announced the hospital again would exit its partnership with Des Moines-based MercyOne, and disclosed the hire of an operations improvement consultant, executives last week shared more organizational updates – including that an “internal and external” rebranding is underway.

The second of two finalists for the highest job atop University of Iowa Health Care and the UI College of Medicine on Monday spoke directly to key concerns, issues, and incentives presently before the enterprise he aims to lead – including physical growth, community collaboration, patient satisfaction, and staffing.

Mark Rosenblatt, a top executive with the University of Illinois College of Medicine and health system, is the second finalist of two to succeed Brooks Jackson as vice president for medical affairs of University of Iowa Health Care and dean of its Carver College of Medicine.

Attorneys representing the University of Iowa want a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit the campus’ new private utilities operator filed against it in January – ignoring, for now, the substance of the accusations and arguing its utilities operator made procedural and jurisdictional mistakes in filing the suit.

Although the first of two finalists for the top job leading University of Iowa Health Care and its Carver College of Medicine has no experience as a public academic medical center administrator, she has extensive medical, research, leadership and emergency response experience that she believes qualifies her for the post.

Denise J. Jamieson — professor and chair for the Emory Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics and chief of gynecology and obstetrics for Emory Healthcare — will visit the UI campus Monday and Tuesday and participate in an open forum from noon to 1 p.m. Monday.

Given the uncertainty of Mercy Iowa City, Steindler now is considering performing surgery at hospitals in Cedar Rapids too – including UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital and Mercy Medical Center, both Cedar Rapids, and other in-patient hospitals regionally.

Eight months after unveiling four finalists to become vice president for medical affairs and dean of its Carver College of Medicine --

A day after getting Board of Regents OK to proceed with $185 million worth of health care and medicine-related projects in the coming months, the University of Iowa on Friday issued a request for qualifications from firms interested in designing and developing a massive new North Inpatient Tower next to Kinnick Stadium.

One of those projects is a $40 to $49 million expansion and build-out of its six-year-old Stead Family Children’s Hospital that -- with price escalations during construction, court-ordered payouts post-construction, and faulty work requiring widespread window repair -- already has seen its price swell from a $270.8 million budget to up to $450 million.

UI agreed to implement training and pay over $16,000 to resolve claims that X-rays submitted to Medicare didn’t meet requirements of having an attending physician review them.

The union representing 3,800 University of Iowa Health Care workers has announced the ratification of its “strongest contract for our members in Iowa since the changes to Chapter 20 in 2017.”

Mercy Iowa City Hospital in recent months had to retain a “strategic and operational performance improvement” consultant after breaching debt coverage obligations amid declining patient days and occupancy percentages. Just two miles west, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is overrun with as many as 70 people waiting in the emergency room at one time.

The University of Iowa’s efforts to acknowledge and reward good work come as UI Health Care reports 500 to 600 open nursing positions, and the broader campus reports its most faculty resignations since at least 2006 — with 92 in fiscal 2022.

Compounding escalating costs associated with the University of Iowa’s construction of its 14-story Stead Family Children’s Hospital, campus officials are asking permission to spend $45 million replacing damaged windows on nine floors – tripling the $15 million they originally planned to spend replacing cracked or delaminated windows on two floors.