Aurora picks site for new Grafton hospital

Small Business Times, September 25, 2007

Aurora Health Care and Advanced Healthcare today announced the site of their new regional medical center, which plan to build in Grafton on a 105-acre plot northwest of the intersection of Highway 60 and Port Washington Road.

"Our chief goal in choosing a site was to provide easy access for our patients in Grafton and all of the communities of Ozaukee County," said Bill Ebinger, M.D., an internal medicine physician in Grafton and member of the Advanced Healthcare board of directors. "We are confident that our patients will like the location we selected. This site, just off the Interstate 43 interchange, will be convenient for area residents and provide quick access to the hospital for ambulances."

Aurora and Advanced provided other details of the project in a submittal to the Village of Grafton Plan Commission.

The four-story regional medical center will span 480,000 square feet of space. Of that, 400,000 square feet will be hospital space, and a medical office building will provide assume 80,000 square feet

The hospital will open with 89 beds.

"We believe this will allow us to meet the community’s needs for some time to come," said Eugene Monroe, M.D., president of Advanced Healthcare. "If in the future patient demand requires more space, this site will accommodate expansion."

The medical center campus will feature several ponds, green space and landscaping.

The new Aurora Medical Center in Grafton will have a 24-hour emergency department, a Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic and an array of other hospital services.

Plans for the new regional medical center were disclosed July 31 as Aurora Health Care and Advanced Healthcare announced that they would come together under a broad affiliation agreement.

"We have been so pleased with the response to our Grafton plans," said Nick Turkal, M.D., chief executive officer of Aurora Health Care. "We have heard from many of our patients as well as business and community leaders, and we will continue to welcome their thoughts and ideas as we move forward with the planning process."

Additional information, including a color rendering and a map of the site, is available at www.Aurora.org/Ozaukee.