Hospital Group Plans to Open Acute Care Center
By DARRYL ENRIQUEZ
Waukesha A national hospital group announced plans Thursday for a 60-bed, acute-care hospital on 40 acres now owned by GE Healthcare.
LifeCare Hospitals plans to open a 60,000-square-foot medical facility that cares for acutely ill and seriously injured patients who are transferred from general hospitals, said Steve Schultz, local administrator of the firm.
Schultz described the proposed hospital as a large intensive care unit that only accepts patients who are referred by a physician. LifeCare plans to open the hospital by March 2007.
A typical patient is someone who suffered catastrophic injuries in a car wreck, underwent surgery and suffered kidney failure. Instead of remaining at a general hospital for a lengthy recovery, the patient likely would be referred to LifeCare for blood dialysis and recovery, Schultz said.
The average length of a patient’s stay is 30 days, and the hospital caters only to adults, he said.
Brian McKaig, a GE spokesman, said the medical firm wants LifeCare to purchase the property. GE also will participate in designing and equipping the hospital.
“It will be a GE digital health care facility,” McKaig said. “It will be equipped with GE equipment for electronic medical records, patient bedside monitoring and diagnostic equipment, including ultrasound equipment and a CT (computed tomography) scanner.”
A LifeCare facility is currently operating in a leased space at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Milwaukee, Schultz said.
LifeCare ran another facility from St. Michael Hospital in Milwaukee, but that operation was folded temporarily into St. Joseph and ultimately will be moved to Waukesha, Schultz said.
Plans call for building a single-story hospital on Golf Road, between Willow Run Golf Club and the GE Healthcare complex, Schultz said.
It would be the first such medical facility in Waukesha County. Aurora Health Care and Kindred Hospital operate similar acute-care facilities in Milwaukee County.
Schultz said he does not expect Waukesha-based ProHealth Care to oppose the new hospital.
“We don’t compete with ProHealth or Aurora,” Schultz said. “We’re an adjunct to their general hospital services.”
ProHealth, operator of hospitals in Waukesha and Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital, is in a bitter struggle to prevent Aurora from opening a general hospital in western Waukesha County.
But ProHealth doesn’t seem poised to roadblock the new proposal.
“There are currently no long-term, acute-care beds or facilities in Waukesha County, so we’re interested in learning more about LifeCare’s plans,” said Sandra Peterson, a ProHealth spokeswoman.
The for-profit LifeCare operates at 21 locations throughout the United States. It opened the Milwaukee facilities about six years ago, Schultz said.
GE has petitioned the City of Waukesha for a zoning change of the property to operate a medical facility there.
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