June 1, 2008

United Hospital System's Plans Move Forward
Expansion of St. Catherine's, renovation of Kenosha Hospital to begin this summer

By Deneen Smith
Kenosha News

United Hospital System will move forward with an $80 million plan to expand St. Catherine's Hospital and renovate Kenosha Hospital this summer, ultimately adding space for approximately 100 new patient rooms.

The hospital system has been working on the plan for months, winning approval for the St. Catherine's expansion at the Pleasant Prairie Plan Commission this week. On Thursday, the hospital board of directors gave its final approval.

Construction will begin later this summer or in early fall, with the project expected to be completed in 2011, said United Chief Executive Officer Ric Schmidt.

Under the plan, a third and fourth floor will be added to the patient wing at St. Catherine's Hospital, and the emergency room at the hospital doubled in size. Plans call for the new fourth floor at St. Catherine's to be occupied entirely by obstetrics, with the birthing center from Kenosha Hospital moved there.

The new third floor is, for now, expected to initially be left undeveloped, but to eventually house about 49 medical-surgical patient rooms. Schmidt said a decision is likely to be made over the next 12 to 24 months whether to move forward with that build-out immediately.

United is also in negotiations with Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, which operates a separately licensed hospital within Kenosha Hospital, to move that operation to St. Catherine's. Schmidt said Children's is eager to make the move, but the two companies are negotiating terms.

With the planned move of obstetrics and pediatrics to St. Catherine's, Schmidt said the two floors currently occupied by those operations at Kenosha Hospital would then be renovated and converted to additional medical-surgical patient rooms at that site.

St. Catherine's, which opened just six years ago, currently has 65 patient beds. Kenosha Hospital has approximately 120.

When the expansion plan is complete, the two hospitals together would have as many as 281 patient beds.

The cost of the project is estimated at $80 million, with about $65 million going toward construction and the balance toward equipping and furnishing the new rooms and facilities.

Schmidt said United plans to pay for the project out of operating funds, rather than borrowing money through bonding. He said the hospital system also expects to pay off its existing debt for the original construction of St. Catherine's and previous expansion and renovation of Kenosha Hospital by 2011.

Schmidt said the expansion plan will both allow the hospital system to meet growing patient demand at St. Catherine's and shift hospital services to better meet the demographics of the community.

He said moving obstetrics and pediatrics to St. Catherine's makes sense because the bulk of younger families in Kenosha County live in the western neighborhoods of the city and outlying areas. At the same time, he said, there is increasing demand for adult medical-surgical facilities at Kenosha Hospital.

And, he said, St. Catherine's is also seeing increasing demand from patients from Lake County, Ill., Schmidt said, with United Hospital Systems doctors based in communities like Gurnee increasingly sending patients to the hospital.

The new facilities and renovations also meet growing patient expectations for private rooms and more upscale facilities.

The new obstetrics unit will have more amenities for patients, for example, and the emergency room at St. Catherine's features individual rooms with solid walls, doors and individual bathrooms rather than curtained off beds.

“It is based on patient feedback,” said United Vice President Linda Wohlgemuth of the upgrades.