Downtown inpatient unit with 26 beds to reopen in summer

After being closed for many years, the 3 Center inpatient unit at University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center Downtown will soon be refurbished and reopened. The 26-bed unit will be dedicated to family medicine, offering acute care for patients and learning opportunities for residents in a community-based hospital setting. 

“The reopening of this unit is an important milestone for our downtown campus,” says Jennifer Miller, MHA, MPH, RD, chief administrative officer of the downtown campus. “We are excited to continue to identify opportunities to expand access for Iowans.” 

Family medicine patients are currently admitted to 2JCP (John Colloton Pavilion) on UI Health Care’s university campus. Starting this summer, family medicine patients will receive care at the new unit on downtown campus. As part of the transition, family medicine residents will be provided opportunities to learn and work alongside family medicine faculty in the downtown inpatient setting. The first phase of the project will open 17 beds this summer with the rest of the beds expected to become available later in the year.   

“This location will play an important role in training family physicians who go on to practice in community-based hospital settings in the state,” says Jeff Quinlan, MD, chair and departmental executive officer of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at UI Carver College of Medicine.   

University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center Downtown, which is licensed for 234 beds, became part of Iowa’s only comprehensive academic health system on Jan. 31, 2024. The medical center, formerly operated by Mercy Iowa City, continues a legacy of service dating back to 1873.