BREAKING: Dubuque medical provider intends to sell to ‘major health care entity’

A local medical provider is being sold, with leadership citing a challenging past year. 

Grand River Medical Group signed a letter of intent for the sale with an unnamed “major health care entity,” according to a letter GRMG CEO Kayla Hopson sent to staff Friday and obtained by the Telegraph Herald today. 

The letter says the preliminary agreement with the unnamed buyer will allow Grand River Medical Group to continue working in its current capacity while “stabilizing our business challenges.”

Hopson said in the letter that Grand River Medical Group and the potential buyer share the goal of retaining all employees in the transfer. She said more information will be provided as the process continues. 

The statement did not include a timeline for the sale or if it will impact operations beyond plans to keep all staff. 

The announcement comes a year after Grand River Medical Group laid of 52 employees on Feb. 1, 2024, and subsequently closed its clinic in Cascade, Iowa. 

Recently, the Dubuque health care provider announced plans to stop providing hospitalists to UnityPoint Health-Finley Hospital and then announced it was pulling out of offering inpatient pediatric care at the hospital. 

Finley said at the time of those announcements that it plans to hire its own hospitalists and that the need for inpatient pediatric care is low and does not warrant an in-house team of inpatient pediatricians. 

“UnityPoint Health is always open to opportunities for collaboration with other organizations to improve the patient experience, outcomes, lower medical costs and (to) provide better access to care in the communities we serve,” a Finley statement emailed to the TH on Monday said.