City would welcome chance to lobby Aurora

Officials say retaining hospital services is first priority

By Ed Nadolski

Editor in Chief

The City of Burlington’s top officials said they are more than willing to sit down with representatives of Aurora Health Care in an attempt to convince them to maintain robust hospital services in Burlington.

“Absolutely,” City Administrator Kevin Lahner said Tuesday when asked if the city would consider a package of incentives intended to entice Aurora to consider building a new hospital here. “I’ve always maintained that.

“I don’t know what their history or use of incentives in the past has been, but we’d be willing to look at it,” he said.

Lahner was asked Tuesday to respond to comments by retired physician Bill Stone published last week that urged the city to pour its efforts into retaining Aurora – which operates Memorial Hospital of Burlington and Burlington Clinic – rather than discussing the possibility of a new hospital with United Hospital System of Kenosha.

Stone, who was on staff at the hospital and clinic when Aurora took over in the early 1990s, said he believes a second hospital would muddy the market and eventually hurt consumers.

However, Mayor Bob Miller said his goal all along has been to work things out with Aurora to provide continued services in the city.

“I’ve offered that since day one,” he said. “All along it has been: ‘Let’s work this thing out.’”

Miller said he’s simply trying to react in ways that will secure the future of health care in the city.

“I have to figure out what’s acceptable to the residents of the city,” he said.

That task became considerably more difficult earlier this year when United Hospital System contacted the city to say it was interested in discussing the possibility of building a new hospital in Burlington.

City officials and members of the mayor’s advisory committee on health care have met with United representatives on several occasions but have not, Miller stressed, reached any agreement or even progressed into serious discussions.

Miller said all discussions at this point have been in the spirit of due diligence.

The issue surrounding local hospital services was thrust into public debate late last fall after word got out that Aurora planned to close the obstetrics department at Memorial Hospital because, according to system officials, the declining number of births here impact the sustainability and, potentially, the quality of the service in the future.

While Aurora’s Burlington clinic and hospital will continue to provide prenatal, postpartum and women’s gynecological services, all births will be transferred to Aurora Lakeland Medical Center near Elkhorn in July.

This winter Aurora announced it would expand some existing services and add cardiac rehabilitation services to the vacated obstetrics department.

Soon after Aurora’s announcement regarding the closing of the birthing department, Miller said he would seek alternatives as a means to maintain local birthing services for area residents. At the time he said his goal was to maintain a full-service community hospital in Burlington.

That’s when United Hospital System entered the picture of its own accord.

What worries city officials and some members of the mayor’s advisory committee is speculation that Aurora is looking to build a new regional hospital to replace Memorial Hospital and Lakeland Medical Center outside the city.

While many have speculated Aurora is eyeing Lake Geneva, officials with the state’s largest health care system and the city’s largest employer have not announced any plans regarding a new hospital.

A decade ago Aurora considered such a scenario and had identified three potential hospital sites – including one in Burlington – but it put those plans on the back burner. Since then Aurora has invested millions in improvements at both Lakeland and Memorial hospitals.

Miller said the city still has a binder full of information that was put together in the early 2000s to convince Aurora to build the replacement hospital in Burlington. He said the contents were copied and presented to Aurora recently when the latest speculation on the future of Memorial Hospital arose.

At this point, Miller said, the city is hoping to learn what Aurora’s plans are so officials can react accordingly.

In short, he said, that means figuring out what level of services Aurora intends to offer here and whether residents favor lobbying Aurora for more or seeking alternatives if those attempts fall short of expectations.

Aurora, for its part, has not given any indication as what the future holds for Burlington other than to say it remains committed to the community and will continue to provide services based on best practices and market conditions.

“I don’t know where this is going and how it’s going to shake out,” Miller said.