Mercy Medical Center will open a new emergency room in Marion

Marion, Iowa – Mercy Medical Center, the second emergency room to visit Marion this year, will be showing its soon-to-open location.

The city intends to showcase the new structure at an open house on Saturday and a private ribbon cutting on Friday.

The about $1.5 million facility contains a number of amenities to assist patients feel more comfortable during their stay, and staff are expected to see up to 100 patients each day.

The ER is made more comfortable with well-planned, roomy waiting room seats and additional windows.

Marion has been without emergency medical services for a large portion of its history. It’s a great addition to Marion, especially when combined with the recently opened emergency room from Unity Point Health St. Luke’s Hospital.

“As a community, we’re underserved because we’re expanding rapidly and haven’t historically had these services,” Marion Mayor Nicolas AbouAssaly stated.

It used to take Marion residents about seven miles to travel to Cedar Rapids.

According to Dr. Aucutt, Medical Director of Mercy Medical Center’s new Marion Emergency Room, “You don’t want to be driving long distances when you do have an emergent medical condition.”

For those living in places like Anamosa, Central City, and Mount Vernon, these ERs also offer more convenient options.

Mercy’s second “free-standing emergency room” may alleviate overcrowding in other clinics and hospitals in eastern Iowa. Overcrowding in emergency rooms is a “serious health problem,” according to the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Aucutt stated, “When you look nationwide and they project there’s going to be more and more PR visits.” “There is less access to urgent care as the baby boomer generation ages and becomes ill, and more doctors are retiring.”

The ER is scheduled to open on December 2.