Half a year ago, we began an important journey when Mercy Iowa City joined University of Iowa Health Care (UIHC). Since then, it has been a privilege to see our teams unite, combining their strengths and expertise to continue to serve our community and beyond.
Integrating a hospital and clinics into a larger system is a complex process, even when all goes as expected. When we first embarked on this path, we had two very clear goals in mind: maintaining local access to outstanding, high-quality care, and preserving jobs in our community. Together, we have achieved these objectives, and here are a few of the accomplishments we are most proud of:
Providing continuity of care for patients at former Mercy Iowa City-affiliated locations, keeping local, trusted health care in our community.
Offering employment to all Mercy Iowa City employees in good standing, and we are thrilled that the vast majority chose to join the UI Health Care team.
Continuing an open medical staff model, which is new for UI Health Care. This allows independent physicians to still practice at the facility, now called University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center Downtown.
Transitioning the downtown campus to Epic, UI Health Care’s electronic health record system. For those who don’t work in health care, electronic medical record systems are incredibly complex. They are also crucial for health care organizations to provide continuity of care, an improved patient experience, and better patient outcomes.
With these foundational priorities complete, we now have the opportunity to look for ways to increase access for Iowans across both the university and downtown campuses. Many great ideas for downtown clinical services have been discussed, and we’ve begun to investigate the feasibility of enhancing a number of services at the downtown campus, including obstetrics and midwifery; family medicine; gastrointestinal endoscopy; heart and vascular services; and more.
Increasing capacity in these areas requires thoughtful planning. We want to do things right, and getting it right takes time. This also applies to investing in the future of the campus. We have conducted initial planning and assessments and, over the coming years, will be investing millions in future upgrades, including improvements to parking structures, radiology equipment, and more.
Our community can rest assured that today, you can expect the same great, high-quality care you received at downtown campus before the transition, enhanced with investments by UI Health Care.
All the credit goes to our dedicated teams — our downtown campus colleagues who joined us, as well as the collaboration of our university campus colleagues throughout the transition. I hope you’ll join me in thanking them for their resilience, dedication to our patients and community, and spirit of hospitality.
Dr. Denise Jamieson, MD, MPH, is UI vice president for medical affairs and the Tyrone D. Artz dean of the Carver College of Medicine.
