CEDAR FALLS — The Iowa Board of Regents approved the University of Iowa Health Care’s request to move the Emergency Medical Service, or EMS, Learning Resource Center from the second floor of the UIHC south wing to the second floor of the University Capitol Centre’s, at their meeting Wednesday.
The capitol center is located on the UI’s campus at 200 S. Clinton St., and houses the university’s Information and Technology Services, Office of Student Financial Aid, and other university offices.
According to UIHC, the current Learning Resource Center cannot accommodate the growth of the central nursing telemetry monitoring units, which remotely track patient’s vitals, serving UI and North Liberty hospital campuses.
Regent Robert Cramer, a member of the UIHC board committee, said support is needed for a better space for the EMS center as there is an increasing need for health care.
“Throughout our state, we continue to try to drive that forward, in this case, with a top-ranked nursing program in the nation,” he said, stressing the need for more nurses in Iowa. “One of the main holding places for this and pipeline challenges is the experiential teaching and simulation lab space, which are very outdated and undersized.”
The board also approved UIHC’s request to purchase and raze the 12,000-square-foot building at 601 E. Bloomington St. for a negotiated price of $1.2 million, from the Mercy Iowa City bankruptcy estate, assets from the former Mercy Hospital who filed for bankruptcy in August 2023.
The building, built in 1985, originally served as a medical office space but hasn’t been for sale in a year and a half. It is surrounded by properties owned by UIHC. Officials plan to purchase the building to improve the efficiency of the downtown campus.
UIHC also proposed to destroy the building as it does not comply with modern standards for medical use.
UI Senior Vice President and University Architect, Rod Lehnertz, said the estate has reached out to the university and they negotiated the cost of the building. The sale is expected to close in the middle of October.
“We would raze the existing building on [the property], but likely the site of a new medical office building that would go up from there,” he said. “We’ve actually started the architect selection process for that and this gives us the opportunity to repicture what that whole campus area could look like.”