Miller-Meeks learns about Iowa ID capacity, listens to concerns

Last week, US Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, MS, MD, visited the University of Iowa Health Care main campus to learn about the role our Division of Infectious Diseases plays in caring for Iowans. This visit was arranged in part by Lisa Cox, Director for Government Relations with the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Cox and an IDSA colleague reached out to Judy Streit, MD, Interim Director for the Division of Infectious Diseases to ask if Streit would organize a meeting with Miller-Meeks and provide updates on the state of the subspecialty in the state.

Streit reached out to UI Health Care leadership, including Denise Jamieson, MD, MPH, Vice President for Medical Affairs and the Tyrone D. Artz Dean of the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, and Theresa Brennan, MD, Chief Medical Officer at UI Health Care. Also in attendance were Isabella Grumbach, MD, PhD, Interim Chair and DEO of the Department of Internal Medicine; ID faculty Loreen Herwaldt, MD; Dilek Ince, MD; and Quanhathai Kaewpoowat, MD; and Bradley Ford, MD, PhD, clinical associate professor of pathology.

After introductions went around the table, Miller-Meeks shared how her own path led from nursing to ophthalmology and then to work with advocacy organizations like the Iowa Medical Society. From 2010 to 2014, she served as director of the Iowa Department of Public Health and then was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2020, where she has served since. She described some recent and pending pieces of legislation that would affect the delivery of infectious diseases care at UI Health Care, particularly with respect to lessons learned from the nation’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our preparedness for the next one. “Today, though,” she said, “I am here to listen.”

Streit took the podium and walked Miller-Meeks through workforce retention and recruiting challenges for the ID subspecialty. She described the contributions that ID faculty make throughout UI Health Care, its importance to delivering safe care at all levels and its critical role in consultation with nearly every other specialty in the institution. Topics included antimicrobial stewardship, infection prevention in the wards and in the operating rooms, tracking emerging infections and coordinating responses, and how Iowa faculty have led several innovative programs to deliver Telehealth services to vulnerable populations in the state. At various points, others around the table spoke further to specifics as Streit went through her presentation.

With time running short, Miller-Meeks was escorted to a couple locations on the main campus that she had wanted to see. With approval from a current in-patient being managed by ID, she was given a case history of an individual’s present illness from Ince and then, wearing the proper protective equipment, she went in to meet with the individual.

She was then led to the fifth floor of the John Pappajohn Pavilion and given a tour of the Special Pathogens Unit, an area of the hospital designed to treat and contain highly infectious pathogens. With specialized and filtered airflow and self-sufficient processing equipment, the unit is prepared to minimize human traffic in and out and to prevent the escape of any dangerous pathogens.

In less than 90 minutes, UI Health Care representatives made clear to their representative how they deliver care with excellence and what would make them even more prepared for the future.