Univ. of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to break ground on new North Liberty facility

NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa (KCRG) - University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics broke ground Thursday on its nearly $400 million North Liberty hospital.

The facility, which received approval in September, will be located at the corner of Forevergreen Road and Highway 965.

UIHC said it will be able to accommodate up to 48 beds, 21 emergency care rooms, 16 operating rooms and two more procedure rooms, laboratories, a pharmacy, advanced diagnostic imaging, outpatient clinics and teaching and research space.

The new facility is expected to help UIHC with its capacity as it reports seeing increased demand for care services in recent years, even before the coronavirus pandemic started.

In a news release, UIHC CEO Suresh Gunasekaran said UIHC accepts thousands of patient transfers every year from community hospitals across the state.

“We’ve been operating at a very high capacity for a long time, and our staff have been working around existing space constraints in order to provide high-quality patient care,” Gunasekaran said. “These new facilities will begin to reduce congestion on our main campus, improve resident education, and enhance the patient experience by providing convenient access to world-class physicians and state-of-the-art technology.”

UIHC says the increased demand is caused by the state’s current shortage of highly specialized care involving advanced procedures and treatments that take place over an extended period of time.

The new North Liberty facility is expected to help with these procedures, but will also serve to expand UIHC’s teaching capacity.

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