University of Iowa Health Care is set to take over a family residency practice in Sioux City soon, pending approval from the state Board of Regents. 

The practice is currently run by the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation. According to a press release regarding the UIHC’s plan that was provided to The Daily Iowan, the practice has over 25,000 patients each year and is also the only family residency program in western Iowa. 

Jeff Quinlan, UI Carver College of Medicine chair and departmental executive officer of family medicine, stated in the release that the practice provides local primary care in the Siouxland area.

“It also plays a vital role in producing family physicians who go on to practice in the state. We’re willing to step up and continue operations, so Iowans have more care options, not less,” Quinlan said in the release.

Additionally, the release states that the practice in recent years has faced financial pressure. Quinlan said in the release that two additional community-based residency programs have closed since 2020, which has led to a decline in needed family medicine physicians.

The UI Carver College of Medicine has collaborated with the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation in the past, with some of the foundation’s family medicine residents training at the college, the release states. 

“Educating and training the next generation of Iowa’s health care providers is a critical piece of UI Health Care’s mission,” Quinlan stated in the release. “As the need for physicians in the state continues to grow, it is essential to maintain and expand existing residency programs to retain physicians in the state and increase access to care.”