UW Health is planning to expand inpatient services at both the University Hospital and East Madison Hospital campuses as it sees record demand for surgeries and emergency room care.
University Hospital, 600 Highland Ave., will add a six-story structure with 22 emergency department rooms, 22 flexible-care beds and 48 inpatient rooms. The new space will be tucked between the UW Medical Foundation Centennial Building, 1685 Highland Ave., and University Hospital.
East Madison Hospital, 4602 Eastpark Blvd., will gain six operating rooms, 40 recovery rooms, 20 rooms for post-anesthesia care, 14 flexible-care rooms, 20 emergency department rooms and four care rooms that can be shared between the emergency department and medical imaging.
UW Health’s board of directors approved both projects during its Thursday meeting. The board also approved a separate resolution authorizing up to $310 million in borrowing for the projects, though construction costs are anticipated to be between $180 million and $220 million.
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The expansions, expected to be done by 2026, are meant to reduce wait times for inpatient care and accommodate more patients as Dane County’s population continues to grow and smaller health care organizations rely on UW Health to provide services.
The board had authorized planning for expanding East Madison Hospital’s surgery operations last December.
“The fundamental reason for doing this is our patients need to get their care, and they need to get it in a timely way,” UW Health Chief Administrative Officer Elizabeth Bolt said. “Through these two projects, what will happen is patients will have better access to the care that they need, when they need it.”
The expansions come as UW Health is seeing a “significant increase” in demand for nearly all of its services, Bolt said. UW Health has made do with its existing facilities, but options are running out, she said.
In fiscal year 2023, UW Health saw record numbers of surgeries and visits to emergency departments and clinics, UW Health spokesperson Emily Greendonner said. In the last two years, emergency visits were up by 20% and surgeries increased by 9%.
Most days, either University Hospital or East Madison Hospital is full or nearing capacity, Bolt explained. Staff are required to triage on a daily basis and assign beds based on which patients can’t wait for medical attention, leaving others waiting for a bed to open.
“Whether it’s physician visits or hospital care or emergency room visits, we’ve just seen some pretty dramatic increases in the demand for those services,” Bolt said. “This certainly isn’t something that happened overnight. We’ve tried to use all of our existing facilities to the highest level of efficiency, but at some point you’ve done all those things and then really the only option is to look at expansion. That’s where we’re at today.”
Exactly how many additional health care workers UW Health will need to staff the planned expansions will be determined later, Bolt said.
The University Hospital expansion won’t affect any land in UW-Madison’s West Campus revitalization plan, but could make developments there more compelling. Hotel accommodations proposed at the current Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation tower near University Hospital, American Family Children’s Hospital and the Veterans’ Hospital are a part of the latest draft plan, which has yet to be approved by the UW Board of Regents.
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