New Steindler clinic construction set to begin soon

Plans for Steindler Orthopedic Clinic’s new ambulatory surgery center and clinic facility in North Liberty are continuing to move ahead, with construction now expected to begin in June.

Steindler officials are also pursuing several medical options outside Johnson County, including the possibility of opening a new Cedar Rapids orthopedic clinic and performing surgical procedures at Cedar Rapids’ two primary hospitals.

Steindler president and CEO Patrick Magallanes said that while the overall size of the ASC and clinic facility has been slightly reduced, it will far exceed the capacity of the current Steindler building in Iowa City.

The new Steindler facilities will be built on a 36-acre land parcel at the intersection of Kansas Avenue and Forevergreen Road, just east of the Forevergreen-Interstate 380 interchange. The overall square footage of the ASC and clinic has been dropped from just over 103,000 square feet to just under 83,000 square feet.

Mr. Magallenes explained that the plan submitted in the original Certificate of Need application, approved by the state’s Health Facilities Council in March 2022, was designed with space for future expansion. The new plan doesn’t include that extra space, but it will meet Steindler’s current needs and will still include an ambulatory surgery center with six operating rooms.

“We've just decided to scale down both the ASC and the clinic to not construct today for future expansion,” he said. “If we want to expand in the future, we'll just take it as a (fresh) project. We have plenty of land out there to do other things. But it's still a roughly 80,000-square-foot project. To put that in perspective, our building right now is 33,000 square feet.”

The clinic’s exam rooms will incorporate an “on-stage, off stage,” design, wherein the patient will enter an exam room from a door on one side of the room, and the physician will enter from a central pod on the other side.

“It’s going to allow for a lot more security and PHI (Protected Health Information) privacy within the pods,” Mr. Magallanes said. “It's going to be a very different experience from what our patients are familiar with at Steindler today.”

The project’s construction firm has created a full-scale cardboard rendering of the new exam room concept. “It’s actually really cool,” Mr. Magallanes said. “It's the first time we've seen something like this.”

The current Steindler development, including a detention pond for runoff control, will cover about 10 acres. Again, for comparison purposes, Mercy Iowa City’s current hospital facility sits on about five acres, Mr. Magallanes said.

Construction on the new clinic was slightly delayed by a few factors, Mr. Magallanes said. Clinic officials appeared before the State Health Facilities Council in February to request an increase in the project’s budget estimate from $19.2 million to $29.3 million due to factors such as rising inflation, supply chain issues and labor costs.

The request was approved, along with a request to extend the projected completion date. Mr. Magallanes said the clinic is now projected to be completed by late 2024 or early 2025.

Mr. Magallanes, however, said he expects the project could be finished for much less than $29.3 million, which is set as a “guaranteed maximum price” because the project is being built under “construction manager at risk” guidelines.

“Just because we got approval for that cost increase, that doesn’t mean (we) want to make the project cost 35% more,” he said. “We want to get it done as thoughtfully, efficiently and economically as possible, but still provide an outstanding patient experience.”

Some site work for the project has already been done. Contractors have gathered boring samples on the site to test soil compaction and determine the best location for construction. “We did have to do a little more preliminary work than we anticipated because of the quality of the soil out there,” Mr. Magallanes said.

As construction gets underway, Mr. Magallanes said Steindler continues to pursue “partners” to further develop the 36-acre property as a medical campus, with facilities owned and operated by private practice physicians. Negotiations have been conducted with private entities for an inpatient hospital, a multi-specialty ambulatory surgery center, a heart catherization lab, a stand-alone emergency room facility, and a medical office building.

No agreements have yet been finalized, but the private facilities would provide services that Steindler doesn’t offer, such as an inpatient facility for complex procedures like joint revisions and spinal surgeries, plus an ASC for non-orthopedic procedures.

“We have said that we would sell land to somebody that wants to do a multi-specialty ASC out there, as long as it excludes orthopedics,” Mr. Magallanes said.

Private practice facilities in the Steindler development would offer a competitive, viable alternative to the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, which is in the midst of building a new $500 million-plus hospital in North Liberty, Mr. Magallanes said.

“We'd like to see the full 36 acres developed by private practice physicians throughout the Corridor,” he said. “We would invite people from the north to come down and participate in our vision. We see a lot of growth and a lot of money being spent by the University of Iowa on projects. We think that's great, but what we really also want to do is encourage investment in private practice so that folks here in the Corridor have a choice.”

Steindler is also looking at other options for expansion. Steindler physicians already perform procedures at Mercy Iowa City via the hospital’s open staff system, but with Mercy Iowa City’s future in limbo, Mr. Magallanes said he would like to have Steindler physicians providing surgeries at Cedar Rapids’ two hospitals, St. Luke’s Hospital and Mercy Medical Center.

He also said Steindler has a “letter of intent” to open a new clinic in Cedar Rapids, though details of that project haven’t yet been finalized.

“We’re moving forward with it,” Mr. Magallanes said of the new clinic plan. He also noted Steindler would be open to expansion to other portions of Eastern Iowa, “just to give us options so we can see patients where they are.”

Steindler announced in April 2022 that it had closed on the $11 million sale of its current clinic at 2751 Northgate Drive in Iowa City. That building has housed Steindler Orthopedic Clinic since it was constructed 22 years ago.