Steindler Orthopedic Clinic and Mercy Iowa City have announced plans to collaborate on a new medical park in North Liberty.

Mike Trachta, acting president and CEO of Mercy Iowa City, said in a release that Mercy Iowa City is pleased to announce this agreement after years of working closely with Steindler for 70 years.

The new venture will include care coordination, shared management responsibility of the orthopedic service line at Mercy Iowa City, and access to advanced orthopedic care in the area, according to a Feb. 7 press release on Steindler’s website.

Patrick Magallanes, president and CEO of Steindler Orthopedic Clinic, told The Daily Iowan that Steindler previously bought the land in spring 2021, and the medical park is the clinic’s first development.

“Steindler is looking to put a medical park out there and so, we continue to welcome private practice physicians from the community to join us,” he said.

Magallanes said in a press release that “Steindler had a vision for the future of orthopedic care and independent physician practice in our community and committed to the concept by purchasing land in North Liberty. We anticipated Mercy Iowa City would be our partner in the vision from the beginning.”

The medical park is just one possible new medical development coming to North Liberty. Another development, yet to be approved, is the Steindler North Liberty Ambulatory Surgery Center, initiated by Taylor Dennison, an orthopedic surgeon and partner at Steindler Orthopedic Clinic.

Dennison sent the certificate of need application in October 2021 for the $17.9 million ambulatory surgery center.

The certificate states an interest in providing competition between orthopedic groups to check the costs of procedures, creating currently lacking Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy rooms for patients after surgery, as well as an intent to transfer procedures performed at the Iowa City Ambulatory Surgery Center to the new facility, as other surgeons at the former facility have expanded outpatient surgeries, making it difficult to schedule surgeries.

The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics sent a neutral letter to the Iowa Department of Public Health asking them to “carefully review” data to discern whether Dennison’s development is necessary in light of already existing and underused resources on Jan. 19, 2020.

In the letter, UIHC stated that data submitted by affected Iowa provides:

1. Suggest that the construction of 6 new ambulatory ORs would duplicate existing, not fully utilized capacity at Mercy Iowa City and ICASC.
2. Are not consistent with the need for either a new ambulatory surgery center or a new orthopedic hospital in Johnson County.

The state Board of Regents also approved a new UIHC facility in North Liberty in September 2021. The new facility has a proposed budget of $395 million.