UW Health begins $122 million expansion

UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin, has started construction on University Row Medical Center, an expansion of the existing Digestive Health Center. The project is estimated to cost about $122 million.

Officials called the project a “strategic step” in a long-term plan to vacate the current, aging facility and improve care access in Madison. 

While some specialty practices located at the current clinic will temporarily relocate to University Row, the long-term vision for the new four-story clinic is to serve as a primary care location. It will include adult and pediatric primary care, urgent care, imaging and laboratory services, rehabilitation and a pharmacy.

The services at UW Health West Towne Clinic, which include an urgent care clinic, will also relocate to University Row Medical Center. Krupp General Contractors is building the addition for UW Health, which will lease the building when it’s completed.

“We provide remarkable care with more than four million appointments per year through our outpatient clinics, so having facilities to meet growing demand is essential,” said UW Health Chief Administrative Officer Katrina Lambrecht.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT 

Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2027, and the first patients are anticipated to have appointments in the new space at the beginning of 2028. 

This is just one of several ongoing construction projects UW Health has underway, according to Lambrecht.

“Each UW Health hospital in Madison – University Hospital, East Madison Hospital and American Family Children’s Hospital – is expanding to better serve our growing community,” she said.

At University Hospital, construction is underway to add a six-story structure with 22 emergency department rooms, 22 flexible care beds and 48 inpatient rooms. The new space will be used for the trauma and life support center, and will enable additional space for patient prep and recovery for surgery and radiology appointments.

East Madison Hospital is undergoing a one-story expansion to include six new operating rooms, as well as 14 inpatient beds and 60 post-surgery care spaces.

At American Family Children’s Hospital, the sixth floor is being developed to expand the pediatric intensive care unit and add a cardiac intensive care unit. The project includes building 24 pediatric and cardiac intensive care beds, 14 of which will serve medical-surgical pediatric intensive care patients and the remaining 10 rooms for cardiac intensive care patients. The floor is scheduled to be ready for patients in early 2027.

THE LARGER TREND 

UW Health, UnityPoint Health – Meriter and Lifepoint Rehabilitation, an operating division of Lifepoint Health, kicked off construction recently on a second free-standing inpatient rehabilitation hospital in the greater Madison area. 

The new 40-bed, 58,000-square-foot facility in Fitchburg is within a 10-mile radius of 70% of Dane County’s population. It joins the partners’ existing 50-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in eastern Madison, which has served patients since September 2015.