Ascension to close small hospital, consolidate, close other services across southeast Wisconsin

Ascension Wisconsin announced plans Thursday to close a small hospital in Waukesha and consolidate and close birthing services, mental health units and cardiac catheterization labs across southeast Wisconsin. 

The announcement comes as other hospital systems across the state have made similar cutbacks and closures.

The Saint Louis-based hospital system will close its “micro-hospital,” which opened in Waukesha at the start of 2021. 

Ascension Wisconsin announced plans to centralize all of its inpatient behavioral health care services for the southeast portion of the state at St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee, meaning it will eventually close its inpatient behavioral health units at All Saints Hospital in Racine and at  Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital-Ozaukee.

A spokesperson for the system said it will be transitioning “birthing services,” or labor and delivery services, from Columbia St. Mary’s-Ozaukee and Elmbrook Hospital in Brookfield to St. Joseph Hospital in Milwaukee and Columbia St. Mary’s-Milwaukee campus. 

“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,” Mo Moorman, a spokesperson for Ascension Wisconsin, wrote in an email. 

The hospital system also announced that its cardiac catheterization labs at St. Joseph hospital in Milwaukee and St. Francis Hospital will be transitioned to Columbia St. Mary’s-Milwaukee Campus, Elmbrook Hospital in Brookfield and Franklin Hospital in Franklin.

Kim Litwack, dean of the college of health professions and sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said the transition was likely made due to several factors.

“Hospitals tend to close their units … due to high costs of operation, the financial challenges that they’ve been facing, staffing shortages or shifting care needs,” Litwack said.

The move comes as the hospital system was the victim of a cyber attack earlier this year that impacted patient records. That led to a $1.1 billion loss, according to a Yahoo Finance report. 

“Staffing costs are going up,” Litwack said. “Staffing shortages are impacting, and what the hospitals are then trying to do is figure out how to do more with less.”

Litwack said hospitals also transition services to bring high needs patients and services together. 

“However, it moves people away from their communities, and that makes it harder, so access gets challenged,” Litwack said. 

Connie Smith, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, said closing the cardiac catheterization lab at St. Francis Hospital will impact four employees. She said the lab will be shut down by Dec. 14.

“By closing that cath lab, we’ll have to send patients and people to other facilities, and we’re worried about how long that’s going to take for them to receive care,” Smith said.

Smith said Ascension closed labor and delivery units at St. Francis Hospital two years ago as well. 

“So this is more job loss for us, but it’s also a loss for our community,” she said.

Micro-hospital closing while $10M investment coming to St. Francis Hospital

Ascension said it would close its micro-hospital in Waukesha, which is also run by Emerus Holdings, by Jan. 13, 2025.

The facility mainly provides emergency department and “low-acuity care services,” according to the statement.

“Both parties are working with the site’s associates to identify opportunities for transitioning to open positions at other area facilities,” the statement said. “This transition will not impact services provided at other Emerus–Ascension Wisconsin joint venture facilities in Menomonee Falls and Greenfield.” 

In another statement, the hospital system announced it’s were expanding the inpatient behavioral health center at St. Francis Hospital through a $10 million investment. The goal, according to the statement, is to have up to 60 inpatient beds at that facility.

Services at St. Francis Hospital will range from “outpatient, to partial hospitalization, to complete inpatient care for adolescents and adults,” the statement said. That hospital will continue to run its emergency room and inpatient and outpatient services.

“Addiction treatment services offering integrated collaborative care with same-day visits and recovery coaches will also be available,” the statement added.