Vanessa Miller

As the University of Iowa continues its takeover of Mercy Iowa City, administrators are sharing more details about the transition — including the appointment this week of Deborah Berini to lead management and integration with the now-bankrupt community hospital.

Among the complexities of a Mercy Iowa City bankruptcy sale to the University of Iowa is its electronic medical system transition – with any gap or abrupt termination of system operations posing “significant” threat to Mercy and its patients.

About halfway through construction of the University of Iowa’s new 469,000-square-foot hospital campus in North Liberty, its orthopedics department this week shared more details about plans to move its clinical, surgical, research, and educational operations to the Forevergreen Road site — further backing his characterization of the campus as an “orthopedic hospital.”

“There are real benefits,” he acknowledged when asked for his main takeaways from the scientific report. “But that doesn't mean there aren't real potential harms as well.”

Although only a fraction of the students who graduate in more traditional spring ceremonies do so in December, Iowa’s public universities this weekend will celebrate thousands participating in fall commencements across their respective campuses.

A month after Iowa’s Board of Regents approved a list of diversity, equity and inclusion recommendations, like restructuring DEI offices and cutting unnecessary positions, its public universities have started to “review and reimagine” their campus DEI efforts.

When the University of Iowa finalizes its purchase of the 150-year-old Mercy Iowa City campus, it will be renamed “University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center Downtown,” according to a rebranding UIHC announced Thursday.

Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids has notified 97,000 patients about a security breach that might have compromised their personal information -- including name, birth date, address, social security number, and medical record information like patient account number and dates of admission, discharge, and examination.

A flag atop a Hawkeye fan-led Change.org petition urging the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl to “let the bands play” reads “victory” after event organizers this week announced both the Hawkeye Marching Band and Pride of the Southland Band will perform on the field before the game and at halftime.

University of Iowa Health Care will pay $780,000 to settle a pair of lawsuits alleging negligence against providers — one accusing a UI plastic surgeon of a botched breast reconstruction and another accusing an otolaryngologist of making life-changing errors while performing brain surgery without the help of a neurosurgeon.

With University of Northern Iowa strapped for cash and its tuition revenue sliding, unionized faculty members are criticizing the administration for giving nearly $4.3 million of the campus’ general university funds to athletics in the 2023 budget year – which was almost $1 million more than planned.

With a rise in pet ownership has come a spike in pet health care, along with growth across the pet insurance industry, all driving a bump in demand for more advanced pet medicine — including cancer care, like the novel and expanding veterinary oncology services offered at Iowa State University.

Among Preston Hollow’s concerns with additional delays is the millions Mercy is accumulating in attorney fee.The bondholder also argues that extending Mercy’s exclusive right to file a plan that ultimately fails to garner support would hamstring bondholders for months, “resulting in over $10 million of dollars of lost value.”

Less than a year into his job as Iowa State University’s senior vice president for operations and finance – which he started Jan. 1 following a national search – Shawn Norman has resigned under opaque circumstances, receiving a $124,00 “separation payment” on his way out.

After nixing the fan-favorite chartered flight to last year’s bowl game in Nashville – due to a nationwide pilot shortage – University of Iowa Athletics this bowl season is back in the chartered-air game, although only one Hawkeye fan-specific plane is scheduled to Orlando for the team’s third New Year’s Day appearance in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.