PACEMAKER: Centennial 1998

Generous benefactors spark University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics' modern capital development

That building, which served as a hospital until 1928, itself underwent a major physical transformation as new wings and additions were added to accommodate increasing numbers of patients. Even this proved inadequate as the number of patient admissions increased dramatically in response to passage of Iowa's indigent care laws in 1915 and 1919. The university purchased land on the west side of the Iowa River for an eventual medical campus, and there built the 150-bed Children's Hospital (1919), the Psychopathic Hospital for people with mental diseases (1920) and the Westlawn nurses' dormitory (1921).

However, the resources for a new west-side General Hospital and companion Medical Laboratories Building were not immediately available. Iowa’s depressed agricultural economy left state government financially weak, forcing university and College of Medicine officials to build the new facilities piecemeal over a number of years as appropriations became available.

Abraham Flexner became Iowa's biggest supporter, helping to secure $2.25 million from two Rockefeller philanthropies; the state then matched that amount to build the new hospital and medical building all at once. Flexner, a former critic of the medical college and hospital, had since come to admire Iowa's commitment to medical education and service.

He championed the school's cause with his Rockefeller colleagues, whose subsequent funding support paved the way for construction of the Medical Laboratories Building (1926) and the 770-bed General Hospital (1928). Built in the stately English Renaissance architectural style, General Hospital featured a Gothic tower whose graceful, ornamented spires immediately became a local landmark and symbol of the institution.

General Hospital remained little changed until the 1960s, when rising hospital standards, changing patient needs and enactment of the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs combined to define the need for major renovation of clinical facilities.

As in earlier times, construction of an all-new hospital was beyond the means of the university and the state to finance; unlike before, no single major benefactor came to the rescue. Using a 1967 state law giving it authority to finance construction with revenue bonds, UIHC began a phased program of capital development that by 1996 resulted in entirely new clinical facilities at the University of Iowa. The $500 million-plus project was financed entirely by patient revenues and gifts, with no state appropriations.

Bearing the names of three large donors-Roy J. Carver, John Pappajohn, and the Pomerantz family-as well as former UI President Willard Boyd and former UIHC Director John W. Colloton, the new pavilions replace outdated facilities and consolidate related patient services once dispersed throughout the hospital. Robert G. Petersdorf, MD, a national authority and former president of the Association of American Medical Colleges, has said UIHC has "one of the best physical plants in the country" among university hospitals.