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Children's Hospital to Expand: Wing Will Include Intensive Care Units

Posted on: Saturday, 13 May 2006, 03:05 CDT

By Guy Boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

May 13--Children's Hospital and Health System Inc. -- which last year treated patients from 49 states -- formally announced on Friday plans for a $117 million expansion to meet the steady and strong growth in the number of patients it treats.

The 12-story, 425,000-square-foot wing will be added to the west side of the hospital, at 9000 W. Wisconsin Ave. in Wauwatosa.

Children's Hospital has steadily added more specialized services, such as in cardiology, in recent years, said Jon Vice, president and chief executive of Children's Hospital and Health System. The hospital also is drawing more patients from northern Illinois and throughout the country.

In the past five years, the number of children admitted to the hospital increased 13.3% and the number of children seen in its specialty outpatient clinics increased 46%, according to the health care system.

The expansion announced Friday and first reported in October will include intensive care units and expand the Herma Heart Center. It also will increase the hospital's size to 294 beds, from 222 now, and include room for an additional 72 beds in the future.

Construction will begin next month and is expected to be completed in early 2009.

Children's Hospital -- a teaching hospital affiliated with the Medical College of Wisconsin -- is the only pediatric hospital in the Milwaukee metropolitan area.

Children's Hospital first began thinking about expanding in 2002.

"We knew then that we would need to do something to accommodate our growth," Vice said.

Its projections proved wildly low: The hospital treated as many patients last year as it had expected to treat in 2010.

Children's Hospital and Health System includes satellites in the Fox Valley and Kenosha, where it leases hospital space from Theda Clark Medical Center and Kenosha Hospital and Medical Center.

The health system also has clinics throughout eastern Wisconsin and in Illinois.

Children's Hospital of Wisconsin Inc. and Children's Hospital and Health System Foundation Inc. reported net income of $36.4 million on revenue of $342.7 million in 2004, according to its audited financial statement.

The health care system's 2005 financial statements were not available Friday.

Children's Hospital plans to pay for the expansion through a mix of cash, debt and charitable gifts.

The hospital had $303.2 million in unrestricted cash on hand as of Dec. 31, 2004.

Children's Hospital also plans to add surgical suites and expand its emergency department and trauma center in a second phase that will begin after 2009.

The expansion announced Friday is the latest in a slew of building projects by hospitals throughout the Milwaukee area.

Earlier this week, ProHealth Care announced a three-year, $37 million expansion and renovation of its Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital.

Last year, Columbia St. Mary's announced plans to build a $417 million hospital on Milwaukee's east side that will combine its existing hospitals, about a mile apart, at 2025 E. Newport Ave. and 2323 N. Lake Drive.

Froedtert Hospital is in the midst of a $120 million expansion and renovation project. Synergy Health, the parent of St. Joseph's Hospital, completed a new hospital near West Bend last year.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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