Mercy Hospital

Description

About Mercy
Mercy Iowa City is an acute care hospital and regional referral center that draws patients from throughout southeast Iowa The hospitals major services include

Heart and vascular care including a cardiac catheterization lab

Orthopedic care

Maternity care

Cancer care

Digestive services

General surgery

24hour emergency care

Mercy Iowa City provides

218 acute care beds 6 designated for hospice care is a special unit
16 skilled nursing beds
25 private rooms for outpatient surgery
26 bed nursery including Level II neonatal intensive care
Mercys medical staff is comprised of more than 225 physicians representing all major medical specialties and most subspecialties Many Mercy physicians conduct their outpatient practice in offices in the community

The Mercy campus near downtown Iowa City includes the hospital medical office building and cancer center


Mission and Values
Our Mission
Mercy Iowa City heals and comforts the sick and works to improve the health of the community in the spirit of Jesus Christ and the Catholic tradition of the Sisters of Mercy

Our Values
Respect treating each person with dignity and honoring the sacredness of human life

Excellence providing personalized quality care

Compassion showing empathy and care for the sick and vulnerable

Stewardship using resources responsibly

Collaboration working together for the common good of the community

History

Mercys History
The hospital was founded by four Sisters of Mercy who traveled from Davenport Iowa by train They carried as many furnishings and medical supplies as they could manage The Sisters came at the invitation of Dr WF Peck dean of the young Medical School of the State University of Iowa Dr Peck had worked with the Sisters of Mercy to establish a hospital in Davenport and hoped the Sisters would open another in Iowa City Such a hospital would provide a facility where medical students could gain clinical experience by working with patients and where the Sisters could pursue their mission of caring for the poor and sick

When they arrived at the Iowa City train station a kindly local farmer offered them a ride in his wagon to their destinationMechanics Academy on the site where the University of Iowa building Seashore Hall stands today The Sisters were greeted by Dr Peck and set to work immediately cleaning and refurbishing the abandoned building Only three weeks later on September 27 1873 the new Mercy Hospital admitted its first patienta gentleman with tuberculosis

In 1885 the Sisters purchased a property called the Dostal House located about two blocks northeast of the Mechanics Academy building and moved into it early the next year The remodeled building offered space for more patients and included a carriage house that was turned into a surgery amphitheater Mercy Iowa City continues on this site today

The Sisters of Mercy and the Medical School faculty continued to work together for a number of years until in 1898 the State Board of Regents appropriated money to build a new hospital for the Medical School Thus the Universitys own hospital was created and the Sisters of Mercy were free to operate their hospital as a private community institution