Over a budget year in which Mercy Iowa City sought a new managing partner, entertained a takeover offer from University of Iowa Health Care, and tried to climb back from tens of millions in pandemic-incurred losses, new documents made public last week show finances for the Iowa City-based hospital only worsened.
Adding to the growing list of construction and renovation projects University of Iowa Health Care is pursuing in and around its campus, UIHC now is asking an outside development team to design, plan and build it a new primary care medical office building in Iowa City. Competing hospitals are concerned, saying primary care needs in the area are already well-served.
Construction of a new University of Iowa inpatient tower on its main hospitals and clinics campus — first unveiled in January as part of a 10-year master plan — is expected to start just two years from now in 2025.
Speaking a different language in a health care setting can not only prevent patients from communicating aches and pains or doctors from relaying important medical news or instructions – it can keep people from seeking care altogether.
Spelling out its contention with a $12.8 million jury verdict awarded to a contractor on its Stead Family Children’s Hospital, the state – on behalf of the University of Iowa and Board of Regents – is accusing jurors of leveling “excessive” damages and of being “influenced by passion or prejudice.”
Meanwhile, contractor Modern Piping the day after its favorable verdict Oct. 27 asked the court to require the state, UI and regents to pay an additional $16 million related to bond issues and questions that arose at the start of the disagreement in April 2016.
Adding to the hundreds of millions in new construction, renovations, and expansions already planned or underway across its Johnson County campuses, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics this week wants Board of Regents approval to spend another $16 million upgrading its main Iowa City location.
More than seven years after a Cedar Rapids contractor first sued the University of Iowa over payment for work on a pair of high-profile projects – its new Hancher Auditorium and children’s hospital – a jury has delivered another blow to UI, ordering it pay $12.8 million more.
Two women with separate stories of discrimination are suing the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for disparate treatment they say upended their health care careers and humiliated them, according to a pair of lawsuits filed on the same day.
Imperative to the nationally-ranked pediatric cancer care at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital are its people, and the 28-year-old student-led UI Dance Marathon on Monday made another monumental move to support them with a $1.5 million donation.
Three years after two University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics nurses and one UIHC physical therapist filed a lawsuit accusing their employer of violating federal and state code in how and when they paid employees, the Board of Regents has agreed to settle the class-action case for $15 million.
Colleges, universities, and trade schools are ramping up nurse-related partnerships, scholarships, internships, and mentorships in hopes of meeting the workforce’s increasingly dire needs.
Some staff nurses overwhelmed by ballooning patient loads and more charts and medications to juggle are relieved to have the extra hands traveling nurses provide. Others harbor contempt for the higher wages travelers make – costing their hospitals millions – even as temporary nurses are less familiar with the facilities, processes, and patients.
The University of Iowa did extend an offer to one of its finalists after receiving “robust feedback from campus stakeholders regarding the candidates,” but that person declined the offer.
© 2025 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved.
Daily Newsletters