Articles Tagged: University of Iowa Health Care

In the face of objections from MercyOne — the Des Moines area health care system that for six years provided management over a troubled Mercy Iowa City — a federal judge is leaning toward approving a long-negotiated liquidation plan for the now-bankrupt community hospital that exposes MercyOne to liability and lawsuits.

One week after a large California investment firm bought ACT Inc. – morphing the longtime Iowa City-based nonprofit testing company into a for-profit enterprise – a separate nonprofit organization the new ACT conglomerate promised to maintain retained the Iowa City campus and now is selling it.

Seven years after a Cedar Rapids-based contractor first started feuding with the University of Iowa over its work on the towering Stead Family Children’s Hospital, Iowa’s high court has weighed in and sided with the university on part of its appeal — reversing an order to pay Modern Piping another $12.8 million.

Among $2-plus billion in upcoming University of Iowa Health Care construction -- including a $1 billion, 842,000-square-foot inpatient tower near Kinnick Stadium -- is an expanded burn treatment center, now facing a 10-percent budget hike due to the “challenging and complex nature” of hospital renovation work.

With more sophisticated and more expensive drugs advancing every year, the annual sum Ostrem’s work saves patients continues to climb, nearly 38 years after she started.

Hoping to address UI employment demands alongside academic needs for its students-in-training, UIHC recently partnered with the College of Nursing for what could serve as a “win-win-win.” By hiring students for a new “unit partner” position, the university aims to give them “invaluable experience while also supporting the workload of hospital staff and enhancing patient care.”

Although Theresa Sault-Brill sought $95,000 from the university to remedy what she characterized as “significant lost wages” and “emotional distress,” she signed a $20,000 settlement March 28 and agreed not to pursue or accept any future UI employment.

Facing concerns and objections from pensioners and other entities owed millions in “unsecured” claims, a bankrupt Mercy Iowa City – by means of attorneys burning through thousands by the hour – have negotiated a proposal for how to distribute the hospital’s limited resources.

Three months after hiring a leader for its complex integration with Mercy Iowa City, University of Iowa Health Care this week announced she has accepted another job and will be leaving in May -- compelling UIHC to initiate a search for a permanent chief administrator of its new downtown campus.

Including $28 million it bid in a bankruptcy auction to buy Mercy Iowa City, $8.5 million it covered of the hospital’s “cash-based operating losses,” and $3.4 million it spent resolving Mercy’s unpaid contract obligations, the University of Iowa’s total cost to acquire the 150-year-old community hospital is expected to reach nearly $40 million.

The University of Iowa is looking to lease 65,760 square feet of warehouse, office, and support space on ACT Inc.’s former Iowa City campus for use by UI Health Care’s pharmacy services group.

The University of Iowa has agreed to pay a Johnson County family $2 million to settle a lawsuit involving accusations of negligence in the 2009 delivery of their son, who “showed signs immediately of injury to his right arm” and has failed to regain full mobility.

As part of the University of Iowa’s takeover of Mercy Iowa City – which became official Wednesday and continued UI Health Care’s accelerating expansion statewide – it’s assuming more than 1,000 of Mercy’s contracts, costing $3.4 million to “cure” amounts the former community hospital owed under those agreements.

Although the skywalk spanning Market Street connecting portions of the historic Mercy Hospital campus on Wednesday morning still boasted that 150-year-old name and its teal and white colors, a sign along the street below announced Mercy’s new owner and new name: University of Iowa Health Care "Downtown Campus.“

There were 212 licensed psychiatrists practicing in the state in 2021, down from 236 in 2012, according to Iowa Health Professions Tracking Center.