After taking over Iowa City’s 150-year-old Mercy Hospital and its handful of clinics in January with a $28 million bid in a contentious bankruptcy auction, the University of Iowa has sold the former Mercy clinic in Kalona to Washington County Hospital and Clinics for $425,000.
Although the university is keeping most of the properties it acquired from Mercy — and has turned the main Iowa City campus into its new UIHC Medical Center Downtown — the university already operates a clinic in Washington County, within 10 miles of the Kalona clinic.
“This sale will enable the residents of Kalona and adjoining communities to be served by both UI Health Care and Washington County Hospital and Clinics,” according to Board of Regents documents. “UI Health Care intends to transition all staff of the Kalona clinic to other UI Health Care clinics to serve these communities.”
The sale is part of the UIHC-Mercy transition, which has involved transitioning about 1,000 former Mercy employees to the UI payroll and moving the former Mercy operation and its patients onto UIHC’s electronic medical record provider — Epic. A launch onto that system, while patients continued to be treated at the downtown campus, occurred in May “without significant issues,” UIHC Chief Executive Officer Brad Haws said.
“Now that Epic has been launched, it gives us the opportunity to truly begin looking for ways to maximize capacity across both the university campus and downtown campus,” Haws said in a Q&A published June 27 by the university. “A number of services and programs have been identified as areas to be evaluated for relocation to the downtown campus.”
Although no final decisions have been made, Haws identified low-risk obstetrics and midwifery as one service line “where we have already had some success transferring patients to the downtown campus from university campus.”
“We are evaluating expanding and formalizing the downtown campus role in those circumstances,” he said. “Family medicine, gastrointestinal endoscopy, operating room utilization, heart and vascular services, and sleep disorders are also on the evaluation list for where we might make more moves to the downtown campus.”
UIHC has committed to invest at least $25 million in facility upgrades across the downtown campus. Haws said the university has completed a facilities assessment and initiated several “repairs and enhancements.”
One is a three-phased project costing more than $1 million to replace “critical sections of roof” at the downtown campus.
“This foundational work must come first before we can invest in other areas, such as upgrading operating rooms,” Haws said.
To the question of UIHC’s long-term vision and strategy for the downtown campus, Haws said, “We want to do things right, and getting it right takes time.”
“Still, as we work on the longer-term planning, we recognize the importance of making faster incremental changes based on needs,” he said. “A specific example of this is UI Health Care Sleep Solutions. With a lease ending soon in Coralville, it makes sense to relocate that retail space to the Medical Office Building on Jefferson Street in Iowa City on our downtown campus.”
Like the use of that medical office, UI officials have told The Gazette they don’t plan to sell off all the clinics they obtained through the Mercy bankruptcy. The Kalona clinic was different — in that UIHC already offered services nearby.
The two sides agreed on the $425,000 price based on two appraisals — one for $450,000 and another for $390,000. The $425,000 includes “all existing furnishing, medical equipment, and supplies.”
The Kalona clinic will add to Washington County Hospitals and Clinics’ facility portfolio, which includes a critical access hospital, family medicine clinic, McCreedy Medical Clinic, Beans Pharmacy in Washington and a clinic in Columbus Junction.
UIHC’s Kalona and Washington County service — through its Riverside clinic — includes specialty care like OBGYN, midwifery, urology, electrophysiology, dialysis and emergency care.
In a statement earlier this year, WCHC CEO Todd Patterson said that “Kalona is an important community in our primary service area, and we are excited for the opportunity to expand access to our outpatient services for its residents and a continued collaboration with UI Health Care.”
www.thegazette.com
Although the university is keeping most of the properties it acquired from Mercy — and has turned the main Iowa City campus into its new UIHC Medical Center Downtown — the university already operates a clinic in Washington County, within 10 miles of the Kalona clinic.
“This sale will enable the residents of Kalona and adjoining communities to be served by both UI Health Care and Washington County Hospital and Clinics,” according to Board of Regents documents. “UI Health Care intends to transition all staff of the Kalona clinic to other UI Health Care clinics to serve these communities.”
The sale is part of the UIHC-Mercy transition, which has involved transitioning about 1,000 former Mercy employees to the UI payroll and moving the former Mercy operation and its patients onto UIHC’s electronic medical record provider — Epic. A launch onto that system, while patients continued to be treated at the downtown campus, occurred in May “without significant issues,” UIHC Chief Executive Officer Brad Haws said.
“Now that Epic has been launched, it gives us the opportunity to truly begin looking for ways to maximize capacity across both the university campus and downtown campus,” Haws said in a Q&A published June 27 by the university. “A number of services and programs have been identified as areas to be evaluated for relocation to the downtown campus.”
Downtown vision
Although no final decisions have been made, Haws identified low-risk obstetrics and midwifery as one service line “where we have already had some success transferring patients to the downtown campus from university campus.”
“We are evaluating expanding and formalizing the downtown campus role in those circumstances,” he said. “Family medicine, gastrointestinal endoscopy, operating room utilization, heart and vascular services, and sleep disorders are also on the evaluation list for where we might make more moves to the downtown campus.”
UIHC has committed to invest at least $25 million in facility upgrades across the downtown campus. Haws said the university has completed a facilities assessment and initiated several “repairs and enhancements.”
One is a three-phased project costing more than $1 million to replace “critical sections of roof” at the downtown campus.
“This foundational work must come first before we can invest in other areas, such as upgrading operating rooms,” Haws said.
To the question of UIHC’s long-term vision and strategy for the downtown campus, Haws said, “We want to do things right, and getting it right takes time.”
“Still, as we work on the longer-term planning, we recognize the importance of making faster incremental changes based on needs,” he said. “A specific example of this is UI Health Care Sleep Solutions. With a lease ending soon in Coralville, it makes sense to relocate that retail space to the Medical Office Building on Jefferson Street in Iowa City on our downtown campus.”
Kalona clinic sale
Like the use of that medical office, UI officials have told The Gazette they don’t plan to sell off all the clinics they obtained through the Mercy bankruptcy. The Kalona clinic was different — in that UIHC already offered services nearby.
The two sides agreed on the $425,000 price based on two appraisals — one for $450,000 and another for $390,000. The $425,000 includes “all existing furnishing, medical equipment, and supplies.”
The Kalona clinic will add to Washington County Hospitals and Clinics’ facility portfolio, which includes a critical access hospital, family medicine clinic, McCreedy Medical Clinic, Beans Pharmacy in Washington and a clinic in Columbus Junction.
UIHC’s Kalona and Washington County service — through its Riverside clinic — includes specialty care like OBGYN, midwifery, urology, electrophysiology, dialysis and emergency care.
In a statement earlier this year, WCHC CEO Todd Patterson said that “Kalona is an important community in our primary service area, and we are excited for the opportunity to expand access to our outpatient services for its residents and a continued collaboration with UI Health Care.”
UIHC to sell former Mercy clinic in Kalona for $425K
After taking over Iowa City’s 150-year-old Mercy Hospital and its handful of clinics in January with a $28 million bid in a contentious bankruptcy auction, the University of Iowa has sold the Mercy clinic in Kalona that it obtained through the process to Washington County Hospital and Clinics...
www.thegazette.com
