Articles Tagged: University of Iowa Health Care

Despite inflation, labor cost and supply chain snags that stalled the original timeline, a new Steindler North Liberty Ambulatory Surgery Center now is under construction just east of Interstate 380, north of Forevergreen Road – adding to the health care construction boom underway in that community.

“I don't think I've ever gone a week here on my unit for four years without being physically assaulted,” said UIHC registered nurse Alex Kestrel, who works in the geriatric psychiatry unit. “I get punched in the face pretty much every week by my patients.”

The day before the University of Iowa announced who would serve on a revamped search committee for its second attempt to find a new vice president for medical affairs, a committee co-chair asked the woman who later would be chosen for the job to apply.

The state of Iowa added to its tally of Board of Regents-related settlement payouts Wednesday by approving three more – including a $5 million agreement tied to allegations of medical negligence at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, to be paid out over 30 years through 2053.

As it’s done for years, the Board of Regents last week approved a University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics across-the-board 6-percent rate hike for the new budget year starting next month – the highest allowed in many UIHC payer contracts.

Continuing its construction boom involving more than $1 billion in new and renovated facilities, University of Iowa Health Care next week will seek Board of Regents approval to spend $249 million on a new 263,000-square-foot “Health Sciences Academic Building.”

The next head of the University of Iowa’s sprawling health care enterprise and medical college is retired U.S. Public Health Service Capt. Denise J. Jamieson, who accumulated decades of experience with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at Emory University.

Although University of Iowa Health Care ranked nationally as the second-most trusted health care brand, the state of Iowa had among the most “doctor dodgers” in the country.

As the University of Iowa searches for new leadership atop its sprawling health care enterprise, growing network of hospitals and clinics, and highly-ranked college of medicine, administrators want a partner to help them assess “fair market valuation” of a “wide range of health care settings and assets.”

For the fourth time since 2007, the National Institutes of Health has renewed a large scientific grant for the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine — this time awarding it $28 million over seven years to “take clinical research out into rural communities.”

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.