Adding to its growing clinical enterprise and footprint across Eastern Iowa, Steindler Orthopedic Clinic on Monday debuted its eighth location — this one in Cedar Rapids, where about one-third of its clientele reside.
“Going to Cedar Rapids makes sense for us,” Patrick Magallanes, president and CEO of Iowa City-based Steindler, told The Gazette. “A lot of our patients come to Iowa City to be treated. They come from all over Eastern Iowa — they come from Waterloo, they come from Decorah. And what we've been trying to do … is we're trying to bring that first-touch care to the community, rather than people coming to us.”
The Cedar Rapids site joins the Steindler suite of clinics as its second largest at nearly 5,000 square feet, topped only by the original Iowa City office at 2751 Northgate Dr., and adding to locations in Burlington, Fairfield, Keosauqua, Muscatine, Washington, and Williamsburg.
Steindler’s growing team of surgeons performs operations through affiliations with Washington County Hospital, Jefferson County Hospital, the Iowa City Ambulatory Surgical Center, and the University of Iowa’s new Downtown Campus — which for 150 years prior had been Mercy Iowa City, until the community hospital filed for bankruptcy last August.
Early next year, Steindler plans to debut its own ambulatory surgery center in North Liberty — situated between its Iowa City and new Cedar Rapids sites and just west of where UI Health Care is building a new 469,000-square-foot $525.6 million orthopedics-centered hospital near the intersection of Highway 965 and Forevergreen Road.
“We actually are on track right now to be handed the keys to our buildings in North Liberty on March 5,” Magallanes said. “So we'll take possession March 5, and it's probably going to take us four to six weeks to move everything thoughtfully and open up there.”
That will have Steindler surgeons performing fewer surgeries through hospital affiliations — although Magallanes said the new Cedar Rapids clinic could lead to collaboration with UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s and Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.
“We don’t have a partnership with either, but both hospitals utilize something called open credentialing or open privileges,” he said, spelling out an application process that vets providers and approves physicians to practice on their respective campuses. “If we wanted to, we would simply apply for privileges in their open format at either hospital, and we should be able to perform cases up there if we so desire.”
Cedar Rapids vacancy
Although Magallanes said he’s always looking for ways to bring care closer to patients, the Cedar Rapids site arrived somewhat unexpectedly when the Iowa Board of Medicine revoked the license of Scott J. Piper, 52, of Piper Family Medicine in May.
Piper was charged last year with sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist and is being sued for sexual exploitation and negligence by a former patient. To the criminal charges, Piper pleaded guilty in January to assault causing mental illness and received a deferred judgment — which would erase any mention of the case from his record should he successfully complete two years of probation.
But Piper had to enroll in a sex offender treatment program and close his practice — located at 4000 River Ridge Dr. NE in Cedar Rapids. The freeing up of that space presented itself as an opportunity for Steindler.
“We were able to take over his lease, and we just remodeled that space in about four weeks,” Magallanes said.
The Piper group left at the end of June, and Steindler opened Monday its freshly-renovated space including X-ray and other necessities. The clinic still needs some aesthetic touches and signage in the coming days and weeks.
“But we were very fortunate,” Magallanes said. “Miron Construction, which is doing our project in North Liberty, we approached them and said, ‘Hey, we've got this clinic. It’s going to need some remodel. Do you guys have the resources and the desire to help us?’
“And they just stepped in and they just so quickly transformed that space for orthopedic care.”
Full slate of services
The move positions Steindler next to Progressive Therapy, which opened in its new location Monday as well.
“So right next door we have physical therapy through Progressive Therapy that we have traditionally partnered with,” Magallanes said. “And we are still contemplating whether or not we want to add an MRI machine there later next year.”
The Cedar Rapids location will offer a full slate of services — with 16 of Steindler’s 19 providers committed to seeing patients at the new location, including those treating the spine, hands, knees, joints, and sports medicine.
“Different people are going throughout the week,” he said. “So somebody that needs to be seen for a spine-related condition would have an opportunity two days a week to be seen in Cedar Rapids.”
In addition to expanding its footprint, Steindler is adding to its slate of providers — with a new doctor joining out of fellowship Oct. 1 and former UIHC Hand and Upper Extremity Fellowship Director Ericka Lawler joining Steindler Jan. 1 — two years after leaving UIHC.
It was more than two years ago that Steindler sold its Iowa City location to an investor out of Kansas City, in light of its North Liberty project, and has been leasing it back ever since. Once the North Liberty site opens, Steindler plans to make its former space in Iowa City available to private-practice physicians.
And it plans to continue developing on the 36 acres of land hosting its new ambulatory surgery center — turning the North Liberty corridor into a new health care hub, given the UIHC expansion.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
