Iowa Health System employees return to downtown Cedar Rapids

September 12, 2008 
 
About 100 Iowa Health System employees have returned to their offices in downtown Cedar Rapids.

Since Monday, Iowa Health System employees have been making the move back into their building, located at 118 Second St. SE, the former SCI Building just above the Blue Strawberry. In all, about 100 Iowa Health System employees have returned. Approximately 130 IHS employees from Human Resources, Payroll, Iowa Health Physicians and Clinics Administration and Information Technology (IT) work downtown. The remaining employees from the IT call center will be returning at a later date.

“Iowa Health System and our hospitals, clinics and colleges have almost 20,000 employees throughout the state of Iowa,” said Bill Leaver, President and CEO of Iowa Health System. “Cedar Rapids is an important city to our health system, and we are proud to be a part of this community. Moving our employees back downtown was the plan from the start, and we’re pleased those departments are almost fully functional in their home base again.”

“It feels great to be back,” said Julie Zuber, Director of Operations for St. Luke's Physicians and Clinics. “St. Luke’s Hospital was great in providing us temporary space, but it feels good to be back in our offices. We really missed being in the heart of downtown Cedar Rapids.”

Iowa Health System employees were evacuated from the building on Wednesday, June 11, when the Cedar River started spilling from its banks.

About Iowa Health System:
St. Luke’s Hospital is a member of the Iowa Health System. Initially formed in 1995, Iowa Health System includes 11 hospitals in Bettendorf, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Dubuque, Fort Dodge, Sioux City, Waterloo, Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island, Ill., along with a group of 369 staffed physicians and 128 clinics in 71 communities in Iowa, Nebraska, and Illinois. Iowa Health System is the first and largest integrated health care system in Iowa with revenues of almost $2 billion and more than 19,000 employees. Its hospitals serve more than one in every four patients in Iowa. It is the seventh largest non-Catholic health system in America. For more information visit, www.ihs.org.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Sarah Corizzo, St. Luke’s Hospital, 319/369-8372 or Jen Porter, Iowa Health System, 515/241-4337.