The University of Iowa Community Medical Services, or UICMS, recently announced plans to close their primary care clinic in Sigourney. They will still offer specialty care, but as of July 27th the Keokuk County Health Care, or KCHC, will take over the primary care for the county. KCHC currently has a primary care clinic with four providers, and Chief Executive Officer Matt Ives said they had been looking to add staff and increase the space provided to them.

He added the decision came as a shock, since they still had seven years left on their lease with the clinic. However, the clinic hadn’t added any new physicians in the past few years. Ives said they were only using half of the space, so there were some warning signs this might have been coming. UICMS had two primary care providers at the clinic, one of which will be added to the KCHC staff.