Board of Regents vote support for new bylaws to align UIHC, former Mercy hospital

With the due date approaching rapidly for University of Iowa’s acquisition of Mercy Iowa City – to be renamed UI Health Care Medical Center Downtown – the Board of Regents have adopted new bylaws to help govern the two entities, maintaining a semblance of autonomy for each while sharing in-common processes and maintaining a smooth transition. Dr. Denise Jamieson, University of Iowa Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine, said the primary concern with the upcoming transition is to make the process as seamless as possible with minimal disruptions to patient care.

“We want to continue the mission of supporting the community of the Iowa City region and ensure that patients can be seen and that there are no disruptions,” she said at the Board of Regents meeting Jan. 24. “We’re working with vendors to transition services seamlessly to maintain quality patient care and operations,” a critical component being the electronic medical record software system, operated by Altera Digital Health. UI Health Care is planning a robust go-live support structure ahead of the acquisition date, installing support staff on site to troubleshoot problems that may arise during the transition. “This will be ongoing until we’ve met our objection to go live with minimal disruption,” said Dr. Jamieson. One of UIHC’s goals with the acquisition is to maintain an open medical staff at the downtown location to ensure independent practitioners and UIHC staff can practice medicine. “One key piece of this is approval of the medical staff bylaws,” said Dr. Jamieson.

Bylaws encourage information sharing, ‘common processes’

Joe Clamon, general counsel and secretary at University of Iowa Health System, outlined the plans to adopt new bylaws, citing the major differences between the two medical entities at the Jan. 24 meeting. According to Mr. Clamon, UIHC and Mercy will be separately licensed hospitals with two separate medical staff. UIHC will continue to operate a closed medical staff, which is a medical staff that requires individuals to have a faculty appointment with the Carver College of Medicine to have medical staff privileges. Mercy will operate an open medical staff, which does not require a faculty appointment to maintain medical staff privileges. Each medical staff will have its own bylaws, which will contain “only those changes necessary to align the two medical staffs, so that they can share information and have some in-common processes,” said Mr. Clamon. According to the Board of Regents agenda, the changes will enhance the alignment with the medical staff bylaws of UIHC and ensure that processes and information-sharing between medical staffs at each location are consistent.

Bylaws reclassify staff

Under the new bylaws, medical staff at UIHC Medical Center Downtown will be classified as active, associate, affiliate, consulting or honorary, with four officers heading the staff – president, president-elect, secretary-treasurer, and immediate past president.

• Active staff members are those who have served at least five years on an associate staff level and are board certified, maintain a presence and participate with patient care at the Downtown location, and participate in committee and department assignments.
• Associate staff serve a term of two years, maintain an active office within the Downtown area and regularly participate in patient care there, and provide inpatient consultations.
• Affiliate staff are board certified practitioners and do not treat inpatients at the Downtown campus, although they can use the diagnostic facilities.
• Consulting staff are specialists that the hospital utilizes to provide on-site consultation in the diagnosis and treatment of patients.
• Honorary staff have served on the active staff level for at least five years and have retired from practicing at the Downtown campus. They can be appointed to special committees but may not treat patients or hold office.

All medical staff are required to pay staff dues, excluding those holding honorary status. The vote to adopt new bylaws was unanimous at the Jan. 24 meeting.

Downtown campus to retain current departments

Prior to its sale, Mercy Hospital maintained four departments that included medicine, surgery, maternal and child health care, and family practice/emergency medicine. UIHC’s new bylaws will not affect the current structure, and each department will be led by a department head appointed by the medical staff president, who will serve a term of two years.

Venerating the old, celebrating the new

On Jan. 24, a prayer ritual was held at the Zion Lutheran Church in Iowa City across from Mercy to commemorate the hospital’s 150 years of operation. Supporters filled the sanctuary to hear words of support from Mercy Iowa City's Spiritual Care team – Rev. Jenny Seylar and Father Terry Ball – sing hymns, and receive one last benediction from the Sisters of Mercy. Dr. Jamieson said UIHC will have celebratory events for the go live on Jan. 31. Swag giveaways, refreshments, and a much-hoped-for visit from Herky, UI’s mascot. More information will be available later.