** About Mercy **
Mercy Iowa City is an acute care hospital and regional referral center that draws patients from throughout southeast Iowa. The hospital’s major services include
* Heart and vascular care, including a cardiac catheterization lab
* Orthopedic care
* Maternity care
* Cancer care
* Digestive services
* General surgery
* 24-hour 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
Mercy’s 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 Of Mercy Hospital
** Mercy's 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. W.F. 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 destination-Mechanics 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 patient—a 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 University's own hospital was created, and the Sisters of Mercy were free to operate their hospital as a private, community institution.
