Articles Tagged: University of Iowa Health Care

Affirming its status as the costliest hospital project in state history, the Board of Regents on Wednesday unanimously agreed to increase the budget for University of Iowa Health Care’s new facility in North Liberty by 33 percent — bringing the total price tag to $525.6 million.

News this week that Americans now have a fourth COVID-19 vaccine option – one closer to more traditional vaccines used to combat flu, for example – came about thanks, in part, to University of Iowa researchers and Iowans willing to take the experimental shot.

UI Health Care has reported a roughly $130 million increase in estimated construction costs to its North Liberty hospital campus, resulting in a 33 percent increase in its budget for the project. In all, the price tag is now more than $525 million. Hospital officials will ask for Board of Regents approval on the new budget in the July 27 meeting.

The day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – upending nearly 50 years of precedent by finding no constitutional right to an abortion exists – University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson emailed the UI community asking that the campus remains “a place for open and respectful discussion of differences.”

The state has agreed to a $7.5 million medical malpractice settlement after a 41-year-old Davenport man suffered severe life-limiting impairments following care at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for a bleeding brain tumor about five years ago.

The study published June 29 in Science Translational Medicine found, for example, that by infusing carbon monoxide into consumable foams — like those chefs use on cooking shows to add flavor and sophisticate their plates — doctors could have a safe way to get a therapeutic form of the feared gas into a patients’ gastrointestinal tract.

In lawsuit-related settlements and judgments for the budget year that ended Thursday, Iowa paid a total $22.3 million — including $6.1 million involving Board of Regents institutions, or about 27 percent.

A year and a half after the first coronavirus vaccinations were given to U.S. health care workers, COVID-19 shots became available for children in Iowa aged 6 months to 5 years.

A University of Iowa Health Care researcher is among 21 nationally to receive an American Lung Association award worth hundreds of thousands for “COVID-19 and respiratory virus research” – his looking specifically at “long-haul” COVID.

Around November, Carson Grace began experiencing breathing difficulties and ended up at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital again – where they began to discuss surgeries doctors said she’d need for a shot at long-term survival.

The University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital has ranked among the nation’s top 50 in seven of 10 specialties in U.S. News & World Report’s new 2022-23 “Best Children’s Hospitals” rankings out Tuesday – its best showing since 2016.

The University of Iowa is suing the contractors who installed 900-some windows in its 14-story Stead Family Children’s Hospital, many of which have proven faulty and flawed, with cracks and dilapidation already showing just five years after the hospital’s opening.

Continuing what has become annual University of Iowa Health Care cost increases, the Board of Regents on Wednesday approved a 6 percent rate hike — which officials said could have been higher given current economic conditions.

Contributions to the American Association for Cancer Research have seen a sharp decline in recent years — dropping 57 percent from $65.9 million in 2019 to $28.3 million in 2021 — and organizers of the Iowa City-based Courage Ride say such trends make their annual event all the more imperative.

Work is underway to “fine tune” the COVID-19 vaccines to make them more effective against emerging variants, but a strategy scientists hope to employ includes offering flu and coronavirus boosters in a single vaccine.