• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Hospital, clinic to open Monday in Janesville

Photo Gallery

St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital and Dean Clinic-Janesville East

The new $145 million St. Mary's Janesville Hospital and Dean Clinic-Janesville East, located at the southeast corner of Highway 11 and Interstate 90/39.

View Gallery

JANESVILLE — Starting Monday, Janesville will no longer be a one-hospital town.

The doors at St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital will open at 5:30 a.m., and patients will be admitted 15 minutes later.

A few hours later, patients will start checking in at the adjacent Dean Clinic-Janesville East.

The opening of the $145 million hospital and clinic is the culmination of nearly four years of planning and more than two years of construction.

Officials from SSM Health Care and Dean Health System announced in April 2008 that they would join forces to build the 313,000-square-foot hospital and clinic on a 50-acre parcel campus at Racine Street and Interstate 90/39 on the city’s southeast side.

SSM is a St. Louis-based provider that owns several hospitals nationwide, including St. Mary’s in Madison and St. Clare in Baraboo.

Dean, one of the largest integrated health care delivery systems in the country, is a longtime partner of St. Mary’s, a subsidiary of SSM Health Care. It is 95 percent physician owned and provides medical and health services through a network of Dean or St. Mary’s/Dean-owned clinics in southern Wisconsin. SSM owns the remaining 5 percent of Dean.

Fifteen months after their initial announcement, SSM and Dean officials said unfavorable credit markets would delay the project by at least year.

They remained committed to the project, however, and construction crews broke ground later that year and have been on schedule ever since.

“We’re excited to open, and we’re ready to go,” said Joan Neeno, the hospital’s marketing and public relations director.

More than 300 people have been hired to staff the 50-bed hospital, which cost $90 million and encompasses 163,000 square feet. Employees have been training since last fall.

“One of the more significant things that will happen in the first couple of weeks is that we will be rounding in all departments every hour on the hour,” Neeno said.

Rounding is an industry term that means checking in with patients.

In St. Mary’s case, rounding will go beyond the patients to operational systems and procedures, Neeno said.

“It very important for our patients, but it’s also important for our staff to make sure everything is working the way it’s supposed to work,” she said.

The hospital and clinic are separated by a Town Square, a glass-encased entrance area.

The new $55 million Dean Clinic will occupy about 150,000 square feet.

The new location also will result in the closing of Dean’s two existing clinics in Janesville: Riverview on Washington Street and Northview in the Village Plaza. Both clinics closed Friday and are moving to the new clinic today and tomorrow.

More than 330 Riverview and Northview employees will join forces to staff the new operation.

Mercy Health System, which operates the other hospital in Janesville, announced last month that it will buy the Riverview building.

Mercy also has a new facility of its own that will open Monday. In fact, Mercy is holding an open house today for its new Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center Emergency North and Mercy Clinic North at 3400 Deerfield Drive near Home Depot. Hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.