ProHealth to build $13M rehab hospital

Milwaukee Business Journal, December 5, 2006

ProHealth Care will partner with Centerre Healthcare, a for-profit hospital system in St. Louis, to build a $13 million, 40-bed rehabilitation hospital in Waukesha County, the systems announced Tuesday.

Rehabilitation Hospital of Wisconsin, as it will be called, will be a tax-paying entity. Planners intend to build the 45,000-square-foot building on 5 acres. A site has not been selected yet.

When complete, the hospital will specialize in the treatment of stroke and brain-injury victims, as well as spinal cord injuries and orthopedic problems, according to the systems.

Under the terms of the joint venture, Centerre will finance the entire $13 million in construction costs. ProHealth will borrow money to buy the land, and then lease it back to Centerre, according to a ProHealth press release.

ProHealth executives had vigorously fought a move by Aurora Health Care to build an acute-care hospital near its Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital for nearly five years until Aurora won the legal dispute earlier this year. Executives had said Waukesha County does not need more hospital capacity.

However, ProHealth made the case Tuesday that rehabilitation hospitals, unlike general acute-care facilities, are actually in short supply in its service territory, with only 5.6 rehab beds per 100,000 residents.

Waukesha Memorial Hospital, ProHealth's largest hospital, will transfer its current 15-bed rehabilitation into the new facility, which executives hope to begin building in summer if 2007. The hospital could accept patients as soon as mid-2008.

ProHealth executives believe the project will be up to $5 million cheaper than expanding the existing unit.

Centerre has similar partnerships with acute-care hospitals in Pennsylvania, Texas and Illinois, among others.