(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents facilities committee has approved the start of the modernization of the University of Iowa Hospitals with an estimated cost of more than three BILLION dollars. University of Iowa vice president Rod Lehnertz says the first project will change the entrances in preparation for the construction of a new medical tower. “It does also include some road work, site work, utility work that will advance our site to enable it for construction of the tower project,” he says. He says this project will cost 72-point-five million dollars and is funded by U-I Healthcare earnings. Lehnertz says the proposed tower will accommodate projected future patient growth and improve the patient experience by increasing inpatient and surgical capacity, and reducing the number of semi-private patient rooms.

“The target for the project is a one-point-five BILLION dollars. There would be an additional estimated two-point-two BILLION dollar cost for new equipment for the tower. University of Iowa Healthcare C-E-O Brad Haws says they talked with a consultant about the best way to deal with the aging facilities. One way is to move the entire medical campus. “That occurred at the University of Colorado, they moved from a downtown Denver location out to a former military base and they moved the whole thing, research, teaching and the clinical delivery system,” Haws says. “And and that doesn’t happen very often, as you might imagine. But when you get into aging facilities like we have and like a lot of academic centers have where the buildings are 50 plus years old, you have to kind of make a decision.”

Haws says other schools with medical campuses like Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Kansas and the University of Pennsylvania have decided to add on to what they have. “What most of these places have decided is because of the co-location of teaching research and the patient care that splitting those apart actually becomes less efficient and something that they really can’t do,” he says. “And the analogy that was given to me was you don’t often see an airport build a second airport, you do see is terminals added.” Haws says they will know more about the scope and cost of the project in November as some of the issues with federal funding are sorted out.

The full board of Regents will vote on the first work at their meeting today (Thursday).