$150M hospital in Grafton eyed

The Daily Reporter, August 3, 2007

Aurora Health Care has acquired Advanced Healthcare and the two will build a new estimated $150 million hospital in Grafton with about 80 or 90 beds.

“We firmly believe that the best and most cost-effective way to deliver care is through an integrated health care system – that is, a health care provider that coordinates patient care across a broad spectrum of services,” Dr. Nick Turkal, chief executive officer of Aurora, said in a press announcement this week. “That’s what Aurora has created, and integrating care is what Advanced Healthcare and Aurora will be doing together. To make this happen, we must have a complete continuum of services in place, including a hospital.”

The two have picked a site off Interstate 43 and Highway 60 in Grafton, where 70 percent of residents are Aurora or Advanced clients.

The planned facility would include a Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic, 24-hour emergency room, outdoor garden, pharmacy, chapel and cafeteria. Six hundred people would work there.

The Cedar Creek Clinic, located in Grafton on Highway 60, would be rebuilt next to the new facility.

After the acquisition announced this week, Advanced will remain a separate subsidiary of Aurora. Advanced’s patients will have access to all of Aurora’s services, including care at St. Luke’s Medical Center, Aurora Sinai Medical Center and the Aurora Women’s Pavilion at West Allis Memorial Hospital. Aurora’s employees and family members will gain access to Advanced’s primary and secondary physicians.

The providers said the new hospital, and the new alliance, would lead to lower health-care costs. “Many of the failures of our country’s health care system can be traced to the fragmented nature of care delivery,” Advanced Healthcare CEO and doctor Eugene Monroe said in a printed statement. “If we can coordinate care for our patients, ensuring that they receive the right care at the right time and in the right place, we can improve outcomes and reduce costs. That’s what integrated care is all about, and that’s what Advanced and Aurora will work toward.”