Plans for new regional medical center remain on the shelf, administrator says
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in chief
With news that Aurora Memorial Hospital of Burlington ranks among the best in the country for quality of care, many local residents might reply, “That’s nice, but how long will it be here?”
Readers may recall that nearly a decade ago, Aurora Health Care announced plans to consolidate Memorial Hospital and Aurora Lakeland Medical Center of Elkhorn into a new regional medical center that would serve the entire area.
At the time, cost of the new hospital was estimated at $100 million. Those plans were eventually shelved as Aurora pursued emerging markets with new hospitals in Oconomowoc and Grafton.
However, with both those new facilities up and running, just what is the future of the Burlington and Elkhorn hospitals?
“We don’t have anything to announce,” said Vicki Lewis, president of both local hospitals for Aurora. “What the community can expect is that Aurora will provide great health care in the community for a long time.”
Whether that means Aurora plans to keep a hospital in the immediate Burlington area remains to be seen. But Lewis made it clear that in all cases, Aurora will maintain a robust presence in Burlington.
“It’s very important for Aurora to be the community’s health care provider,” she said.
Lewis speculated that even if a new hospital is built elsewhere, the Aurora Burlington Clinic as well as an urgent care center or perhaps an emergency department would likely remain at the current site.
“There’s always going to be a clinic and we’re going to perform services here,” she said. “It’s a tremendous asset to the community.”
That provides mixed signals for City of Burlington officials who lobbied vigorously in the mid-2000s to convince Aurora to build the new hospital in the city. At the time city officials were keenly interested in maintaining the quality of life benefits and professional presence that a local hospital provides.
After announcing plans to build a new hospital, Aurora conducted a search of sites in western Racine and Walworth counties. The search was narrowed to two sites – one reportedly near Burlington on the bypass highway, and one in the Lake Geneva area.
Several years later, however, Aurora allowed the options to purchase those sites to expire as it pursued other projects in Southeast Wisconsin. For the past five years, the subject of a new hospital has remained on the back burner.
Aurora’s recent investment at Memorial Hospital and Lakeland Medical Center seems to suggest the state’s largest health care provider is in no hurry to proceed with a new hospital.
The non-profit company completed a $30 million renovation at Lakeland last year and is planning a $4 million emergency department renovation and expansion in Burlington in the coming year.
This comes on the heels of a $2.15 million expansion and renovation of the coronary catheterization and invasive radiology laboratory at Burlington completed in the fall of 2011.
“Anything beyond that is speculation on my part,” Lewis said.
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