Small Business Times

ProHealth plans to build new rehab hospital

Small Business Times, December 5, 2006

ProHealth Care and Centerre Healthcare announced today a partnership to develop a new rehabilitation hospital in Waukesha County.

The $13 million facility will have 40 beds and 112 full-time equivalent jobs and will serve a growing need in Lake Country, according to Ed Olson, chief executive officer of Waukesha Memorial Hospital, which is operated by ProHealth Care.

The site for the new hospital has not been determined. Matt Wade, vice president of facilities for ProHealth Care, told SBT that the new hospital is likely to be built somewhere between Waukesha Memorial Hospital and Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital.

"We're looking at a couple of different sites right now," Wade said.

The ProHealth Care service area has only about half the inpatient rehabilitation beds it needs, according and that shortage was exacerbated when Sacred Heart closed its eight-bed inpatient rehab unit at Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital in November 2005, Olson said.

"We've been researching solutions to the area's inpatient rehabilitation needs for more than two years, and this partnership with Centerre Healthcare makes the most sense for ProHealth Care and for patients," Olson said. "The rehabilitation hospital will actually result in a cost-savings when compared to the expense of building a larger inpatient rehab unit at Waukesha Memorial Hospital."

The ProHealth Care board of trustees approved the plan to partner with St. Louis, Mo.-based Centerre Healthcare, a for-profit business that partners with acute care hospitals to develop rehabilitation hospital facilities.

The new hospital will feature a therapy swimming pool, a large gymnasium, a therapy courtyard and an apartment for daily living training.

Waukesha Memorial's current 40 inpatient rehab staff members will have the option of becoming employees of the new joint venture.

"The rehabilitation hospital will allow us to care for many more patients than our current space permits," said Dr. Alka Kohli, medical director of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Waukesha Memorial.

"The rehab hospital will have a positive economic impact on the area by creating new jobs and using local businesses as suppliers and service providers. It will also benefit the area by being a property tax-paying facility," said Andrew Rosen, vice president of development for Centerre Healthcare."

Depending upon confirmation of the site and necessary approvals, construction of the new hospital could begin in summer of 2007, and the facility could open in the summer of 2008.

ProHealth has been a prolonged effort to rally opposition to stop Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care from gaining permission to build a new acute care hospital in the Town of Summit adjacent to Oconomowoc. However, that Aurora project is proceeding.

When asked if the new ProHealth rehab hospital would be providing any services the Aurora hospital ultimately will provide, Wade responded, "I don't know what they're providing there."