When I first reported in February on the new maternity center under construction at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center, officials said the $13 million project wouldn’t require state approval by the state’s Health Facilities Council because such a unit had been located at the hospital several years earlier. 

However, shortly after the announcement, MercyOne learned that a newer provision in the state statute requires applying for a certificate of need if a unit has been closed for more than 12 months, which was the case here. The original maternity center that opened with the hospital was shut down in August 2016. So the health system said it would present its case for the maternity center — already months toward completion — to the council.

The day that the Health Facilities Council was scheduled to meet earlier this month, I found that the meeting had been canceled and, checking with MercyOne, that the issue had been resolved. After MercyOne provided additional information to the Health Facilities Council, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals ruled that no certificate of need would be necessary, spokesman Gregg Lagan said. “They saw that [MercyOne’s] Des Moines and West Des Moines [hospitals]are a fully integrated unit operating under one license,” Lagan said. 

Incidentally, this all transpired just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March, Lagan noted. 

The new maternity center, which is being built to handle up to 1,500 deliveries per year, will occupy the entire seventh floor of the hospital, and is still on track for an October opening. It will include a Level II neonatal intensive care unit, which will be able to accommodate babies that are as early as 32 weeks at birth.