Wisconsin Children’s Hospital Expands to Meet Demand

MILWAUKEE — A new $168 million tower was built in front of the existing Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin facility opened in April in an effort to accommodate a spike in patient visits.

Hospital officials speeded up expansion plans when the facility reached record capacity two years ago. The new 12-story, 425,000-square-foot patient tower was planned in response to a 13.3 percent patient volume increase at the 236-bed hospital during the last five years.

The hospital’s original master facilities plan included a replacement hospital, but the financial crisis forced hospital officials to recast their priorities.

“This came at a time when we had developed a master plan for our whole system, but we needed beds far sooner,” says Barbara Schlapman, administrator of facilities program development at the hospital. “That led us to the west tower addition instead of a replacement facility.”

The new west tower adds 58 beds to the hospital. It was designed by Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbot of Boston, and Zimmerman Design Group of Milwaukee, and presents a light-filled, colorful new identity for patients, who will move into rooms 30 percent larger than existing hospital rooms.

The expansion allows the hospital to make all of the patient rooms private, which should reduce the number of patient transfers each day and enhance infection control, officials say.

The tower is designed with a six-story curtain wall that features recessions with a continuous vapor barrier.
“We are pleased that this building project has been completed on time and on budget,” says Tim Birkenstock, chief financial officer and treasurer at Children’s Hospital and Health System. “This current expansion is an essential step needed to keep pace with our patient service demands.”

In addition to the 58 new beds, the tower expands the pediatric intensive care to three 24-bed units and provides more space for the Herma Heart Center, which will have 16 clinic exam rooms, seven echo-scanning rooms with a sedation staging area and three exercise/stress labs.

There is also room for the facility to expand by an additional 72 beds when necessary, according to hospital officials.

The tower’s designers allocated space for artwork created by children at local schools who supplied nearly 500 works of art for the tower.