Ascension Wisconsin will close its Waukesha micro-hospital, Ascension Wisconsin Hospital – Waukesha, located at 2325 Fox Run Blvd., effective Jan. 13, and will also close the labor units at Elmbrook Hospital in Brookfield and Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital-Ozaukee in Mequon. The labor unit services will be consolidated to St. Joseph Hospital in Milwaukee, Columbia St.
Ascension Wisconsin will close its Waukesha micro-hospital, Ascension Wisconsin Hospital - Waukesha, located at 2325 Fox Run Blvd., effective Jan. 13, and will also close the labor units at Elmbrook Hospital in Brookfield and Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital-Ozaukee in Mequon.
The labor unit services will be consolidated to St. Joseph Hospital in Milwaukee, Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital-Milwaukee and All Saints Hospital in Racine, according to a news release from Ascension.
“OB physicians at Columbia St. Mary’s-Ozaukee Campus and Elmbrook Hospital are working with their patients to adjust their birth plans if/as needed,” Ascension Wisconsin senior director of external relations Mo Moorman said in a statement. “The changes are designed to respond to the community’s needs and enable us to serve patients at locations best equipped to support them for years to come.”
[caption id="attachment_562034" align="alignleft" width="300"] Ascension St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee. Image from Google.[/caption]
Ascension also announced plans to invest $10 million to develop a comprehensive behavioral health center at St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee. This move aims to centralize “all Ascension’s SE Wisconsin inpatient behavioral health care at the site with up to 60 available inpatient beds,” the news release states. This behavioral health center will also offer addiction treatment services. Construction will be completed by July.
Because of this consolidation, inpatient behavioral health services from All Saints Hospital in Racine and Columbia St. Mary’s in Mequon will transition to St. Francis Hospital “over time,” Moorman said. This will help “to best manage the significant resources required to provide round-the-clock, optimal care for the community,” Moorman said, and that Ascension "will grow our workforce to support the expansion at St. Francis Hospital, and work closely with our teams, patients, and communities to ensure thoughtful, strategic transitions."
“All decisions about how we deliver care are led by what's best for our patients and communities,” said Daniel Jackson, CEO of Ascension Wisconsin and senior vice president of Ascension. “Residents across the communities we serve have consistently told us that increased access to behavioral health services is a top priority. We are configuring our services to answer that call, while also ensuring that we are best positioned to achieve long-term sustainability and continue to deliver high-quality care across the market well into the future.”
Ascension will also be consolidating cardiac catheterization labs. St. Joseph and St. Francis cath lab services will transition to Columbia St. Mary’s in Milwaukee, Elmbrook Hospital and Franklin Hospital. Franklin Hospital’s cath lab services will expand to be available 24/7.
