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Ozaukee Campus Expansion

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"Columbia St. Mary's Hospital serves a crucial role in the health of Ozaukee County and has recently further demonstrated its commitment to our citizens through the expansion project and a new heart program that's already saved many lives."
- Mequon Mayor Christine Nuernberg

Ozaukee Hospital Meets Growing Needs of Community

When Gary Lange was driving back from Minneapolis with his wife this spring, he knew something wasn’t right. After coughing for days and feeling his chest throb each time the car hit a bump in the road, he went to a Twin Cities’ hospital for care. The 51-year-old Cedarburg man had pneumonia. After a short stay in the hospital, he was back home and in his doctor’s office at the Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital Ozaukee. The pneumonia had spread from his lungs, and Lange was looking at surgery – and a nine-day hospital stay. “No one likes to be in a hospital,” Lange said, “but I was pretty happy at Columbia St. Mary’s Ozaukee in the sense that everybody was really helpful. No one likes to wake the patient at 5 a.m. to take blood, but the people who did it were great. They were patient with me, and even the guy I ordered food from really got to know me.” Soon, more people will experience Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital Ozaukee after the $85 million expansion project is completed in 2007. When the expansion opens, the hospital will have a total of 185 beds, a new second inpatient wing and additional medical offices. New programs will also expand the range of care the hospital offers. For example, the hospital’s new full-service cardiovascular program continues to meet the heart care needs of the community since the program opened last fall. Later this summer, the hospital’s Stroke Center is expected to receive national certification as a recognized designated stroke center. Those services and others will ensure that the residents of Ozaukee County and surrounding communities receive comprehensive health care. Lange, who is still recovering from his illness, says he looks forward to visiting the expanded hospital. He is comforted by having a growing and leading health care system close to home. “The people who helped me are going to make this hospital the best,” he said. “I know my family and I will always be treated well there.”

Expansion Underway at Columbia St. Mary's Ozaukee Hospital

"As the only hospital in Ozaukee County, Columbia St. Mary's has a long tradition of meeting the health care needs of the community, and we will continue to respond to those needs in a responsible, cost-effective manner."
 - Leo P. Brideau, President & CEO

Columbia St. Mary's exciting initiatives to transform health care will first be seen throughout the expansion project that is underway at its Ozaukee Hospital in Mequon. Construction began last fall to expand the facility to provide the necessary services to accommodate growing Ozaukee County and the surrounding community. In addition to expanding diagnostic and treatment services and adding full cardiovascular care, the expansion includes additional patient rooms and a medical office building. A new inpatient bed tower will add 67 beds to the hospital campus, bringing the total to 185 beds.

The project is being modeled after the principles of evidence-based design, a concept that demonstrates how architectural design elements can improve patient outcomes and staff efficiency.

The additional number of beds will ensure that residents from Ozaukee County and surrounding communities will receive the full health care services they need, close to home.

Cardiovascular Services Open at Ozaukee Hospital
 

"Columbia St. Mary's is known as one of the key leaders in cardiac care in the Milwaukee area. They are now bringing that experience and expertise to serve the residents of Ozaukee County and surrounding communities."
- Dr. Frank Downey, Cardiothoracic Surgeon

It used to be that when patients in Ozaukee County required angioplasties or other cardiovascular procedures, a great deal of travel was involved. The new full service cardiovascular program at Columbia St. Mary's Ozaukee Hospital has now brought this critical services closer to home.

"Columbia St. Mary's is known as one of the key leaders in cardiac care in the Milwaukee area," said Dr. Frank Downey, cardiothoracic surgeon. "They are now bringing that experience and expertise to serve the residents of Ozaukee County and surrounding communities."

The new program offers an extensive line of cardiovascular services, which is not only advantageous to patients needing scheduled procedures, but critical for patients who come in during traumatic circumstances. "It's been very important for Ozaukee County residents to have a strong cardiac catheterization and cardiac surgery program at Columbia St Mary's Ozaukee Hospital," said Dr. Leonard Kleinman, cardiothoracic surgeon.

"Until now, cardiac patients would have been stabilized and transferred to a Milwaukee hospital - which takes extra time - time that many heart patients don't have. Now, many of these patients can get all the heart care that they need in one location."

The cardiovascular program is staffed by distinguished physicians and staff from the region who are now bringing their medical expertise to Ozaukee County.

Prognosis Good for Hospital
As appeared in the Monday, July 18, 2005 News Graphic
By Ed Zagorski, News Graphic Staff

Mequon – Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital Officials received the go-ahead from common council members to move forward with their $85 million expansion project for the lone Ozaukee County hospital.

Construction for the 33,000-square-foot project is expected to start in early August with an expected completion date of December 2007, said Kathy Schmitz, the hospital’s director of communications.

Columbia St. Mary’s is looking to add a five-story inpatient wing to the hospital at 13111 N. Port Washington Road. The new wing will have 67 beds, bringing the total at the hospital to 185.

The expansion project also calls for a three-story medical office building set for west of the current hospital. Plans also include a support services building addition; central utility plant expansion; roadway and drop-off improvements including construction of additional parking areas.

On Tuesday, common council members followed the city’s plan commission recommendation to approve a conditional use grant that hospital officials were seeking for the expansion. Council members on Tuesday also approved the rezoning of land Columbia St. Mary’s owns west of its current buildings to make room for a parking lot and for a detention pond. Council members made it clear Tuesday the rezoning is limited to the actual acreage that is needed for the hospital’s projects, and not for the 18.6-acre site just west of the hospital site.

As part of the hospital’s expansion, Columbia St. Mary’s officials met concerns raised by alderman about future growth and possible encroachment toward several adjacent homes. Columbia St. Mary’s authorized management to negotiate a non-development buffer zone and a residential deed restriction on more than 65 acres of the hospital’s property to the west and northwest. Columbia St. Mary’s owns close to 200 acres at their Mequon site.

There was no one opposed to the expansion project at Tuesday’s Common Council meeting.

Therese Pandl, executive vice president of hospital operations, told council members the hospital in Mequon periodically experiences a shortage of beds that necessitates patients receiving care at one of Columbia St.Mary’s two hospitals on Milwaukee’s east side.

She said 67 percent of the patients that pass through Columbia St. Mary’s doors are from Ozaukee County.

“The expansion is needed because we have been short on some occasions which sometimes limits our ability to accept patients through the emergency room,” said Dr. Bruce Rowe, chief of internal medicine at the hospital. “We want to be able to meet those needs.”

Rowe said the project is in response to the growing needs of the surrounding communities.

“Our communities are growing older. This project addresses the 85-year-old patient who we may not have a bed for in February and would have to transport to our facilities in Milwaukee,” Rowe said. “That places additional stress on the patient as well as his or her family members.”

Rowe said there are often times where Mequon residents are transported to the hospital on Milwaukee’s east side because of the lack of beds here in Mequon.

Schmitz said Columbia St. Mary’s is also planning to construct a $417 million facility on Milwaukee’s east side; which will replace the former Columbia and St. Mary’s hospitals in that area.

“We are trying to meet the needs of the communities we serve,” Schmitz said. “Our expansion project at our Ozaukee campus will address the need for an increase in beds for our patients.”

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