University of Iowa Health Care Prepares for $2B Expansion with Regents’ Approval

The University of Iowa Health Care (UIHC) is taking a major step toward its next phase of growth, as the Iowa Board of Regents has approved funding to begin preliminary work for a new Patient Care Tower in Iowa City. While construction on the tower itself isn’t expected to begin for another three years, the newly approved funding will kickstart “enabling projects” to prepare the campus for the multi-year development.

The project, estimated to cost over $2 billion, will expand the hospital’s capacity to meet increasing demand across the state.

“A lot of dust in the healthcare part of our campus and we like to call it progress, but it is inconvenient for visitors,” said Rod Lehnertz, senior vice president for Finance and Operations at the University of Iowa.

The enabling work includes the demolition of three existing structures: Parking Ramp 1, the Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center, and the campus’s iconic water tower visible from Kinnick Stadium. A new water tower is set to be constructed near Lot 75 by the Hawkeye football practice field.

“The scale of the hospital takes years and years for us to plan, not just the business plan for it and the finances for it, but the land development related to it,” Lehnertz added.

UIHC’s leaders emphasized that the expansion is about more than just new buildings—it’s about access to care. “We have a mission for the citizens of the state of Iowa and we turn away thousands of transfer requests a year because we don’t have space or the room or the rooms for them,” Lehnertz said.

The approval marks the beginning of long-term changes to the Iowa City campus, aiming to ensure UIHC can continue serving patients well into the future.

Alongside the Patient Care Tower project, the Board of Regents also approved budgets for other multimillion-dollar developments in Iowa City, reinforcing the university’s role as a statewide hub for advanced healthcare.

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Originally reported by Conner Woodruff in KCRG.