$217 Million Children’s Hospital Approved in Iowa

URBANDALE, Iowa — The Board of Regents have approved a $271 million Children’s Hospital project, part of a $1.1 billion long-term facilities plan for University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

 

The Children’s Hospital will be 371,600 square feet in new construction and 56,250 square feet in renovated space for a total of 427,850 square feet.

 

The university first presented the idea of a new Children’s Hospital and a corresponding long-term building plan to the regents in 2008 and received approval. But the plans were put on hold as the recession affected hospital revenues.

 

Revenues have rebounded, officials said, and the long-term facilities plan has been shifted to cover 2011 to 2020. In addition to the new Children’s Hospital tower, the project will convert all patient rooms to private rooms, increase operating room space, improve parking and wayfinding and move many clinics and ambulatory care facilities off-site to create more space at the main hospital campus.

 

The list also includes plans for a second, $400 million new patient beds tower to be built at on the hospital campus between 2016 and 2020. The Children’s Hospital will accommodate 140 replacement and new acute and intensive care pediatric beds. Another 55 pediatric beds will continue in UI Hospital’s existing Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which will be physically linked to 28 additional NICU beds in the new Children’s Hospital.

 

Total pediatric inpatient admissions have grown by nearly 20 percent over the past five years, officials said.

 

UI leaders expect to raise $50 million privately for the project, with naming opportunities available. The tower is scheduled for completion in 2015.

 

The regents next week will also consider approval to proceed with planning on two other UI Hospitals projects: a $14.6 million Family Medicine Center at UI’s Hawkeye Campus and a $6 million community-based Primary Care Clinic in North Liberty.