With the state’s highest rate of unemployment in a metropolitan area, Janesville is looking to the new St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital and Dean Clinic to improve the health of the local labor market. Other areas of the state, too, are looking to hospitals to boost construction and long-term employment.

By mid-June, Eric Thornton, St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital’s director of human resources, said the career section of the new St. Mary’s Janesville Web site had been viewed more than 65,000 times.

“We’re very excited that the community has had such an interest in what we’re doing,” says Kerry Swanson, president of St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital.

She points out SSM Health Care of Wisconsin and Dean Health System built the $150 million community hospital and clinic as a direct response to community requests for a choice in health care.

“We heard loud and clear from the community that they wanted a choice in health care,” she says. “That is why we are here to bring the integrated partnership that we have with Dean, Dean Health Plan and SSM to the Janesville community. And along with that, we are going to be bringing jobs to the community.”

The 50-bed hospital is expected to bring 300 to 350 new jobs, plus 155 jobs indirectly.

Dean Health System and SSM Health Care of Wisconsin, parent company of St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, announced plans for the new hospital campus in April 2008. The Dean Health System, including St. Mary’s Dean Venture, has nearly 60 locations in southern Wisconsin including two in Janesville. In addition to St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, SSM Health Care of Wisconsin owns and operates St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo.

In October 2008, a 34-foot tall shovel, part of a billboard, marked the future home of St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital along Highway 11, east of I-90. The site was designated for groundbreaking before the end of 2008 and facilities were expected to open in 2010. In February 2009, the completion date for the project was extended. Mary Starmann-Harrison, then the regional president and CEO of SSM Health Care of Wisconsin, cited an “unprecedented economic time, affecting new construction in all sectors” as the cause for delay.

Signs of recovery in investment markets along with an improving economy and an even closer eye on operational expenses provided a solid foundation to move forward. Construction began in October 2009 and the opening date for the hospital and clinic is set for January 9, 2012.

In June 2011, 80 or 90 workers were onsite and most were working on the hospital, reports Thornton. Cogdell Spencer ERDMAN, in a joint venture with Shepley Bulfinch of Boston and J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc. of Janesville, was chosen to design and construct the 163,000-square-foot hospital and 150,000-square-foot clinic.

St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital has been tracking the number of hours Rock County workers have invested in the project. As of September 2010, Thornton says 70 workers from Rock County put in about 50,000 man-hours. Overall project hours were much higher.

Hope in Hospital Construction
The Boldt Company is a hospital construction services provider that is consistently ranked by Modern Healthcare magazine as one of the largest construction managers and general contractors in the nation for its involvement in the hospital/health care industry. Boldt currently is involved in more than a dozen health care projects in Wisconsin and other parts of the country. Boldt Senior Executive Vice President Jim Rossmeissl describes the projects range in size from major teaching and research hospitals to community hospitals and critical access facilities.

Rossmeissl says the health care industry has a major impact on employment in the construction industry. On a large hospital project, spanning two years, employment numbers can average 150, with peak employment reaching 200 to 300. Smaller projects completed in a year can employ 40 to 50 people. Those estimates provided by Rossmeissl and based on Boldt projects include Boldt employees and subcontractors. The ripple effect would include others like material suppliers.

Rossmeissl says Wisconsin health care construction activity reflects the current national trend.

For 2011, industry-wide put-in-place health care construction is estimated to be $40 billion nationwide, he says. To put that in perspective, Rossmeissl says the peak year for health care construction was 2008, when $46 billion of construction activity occurred. Looking at more recent trends, he says 2010 saw a nine percent decrease, 2011 will be flat and a three percent increase is predicted for 2012.

“This year health care is down from its peak, but it’s still pretty healthy,” he says. 

Hospitals on average may do major renovations about every 20 years, he says. Advancements in technology, increased energy efficiencies, code updates and improved aesthetics are all reasons for construction. Although the health care industry requires a steady diet of renovation and new construction work, the industry has its challenges.

“Health care margins are being squeezed due to a number of contributing factors,” Rossmeissl says and he points to two: decreasing federal government reimbursement levels and the increasing degree to which hospitals serve the indigent population. “These are big social challenges,” he says. “We all hope to give our loved ones the best possible health care — and that does require the newest technology and the newest facilities, but it’s a challenge to continue to find ways to pay for that.”

Hope in Hospital Employment
Hospital contributions to local economies are often overlooked, in terms of the number of people hospitals employ, the impact of hospital purchases, and the impact of employee spending and tax payments, according to Wisconsin Hospital Association President Steve Brenton.  Wisconsin hospitals contribute $22 billion in economic activity in the state.

More than 100,000 people are in health care, according to “Healthy Hospitals. Healthy Communities. The Economic Impact of Wisconsin Hospitals,” released in 2009 by the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

“Hospitals will continue to be major employers in Wisconsin,” Judy Warmuth, WHA vice president of workforce development, adds. Employment within Wisconsin hospitals is projected to increase by nearly 21,000 jobs over the next decade, according to Wisconsin’s Job Outlook 2006-2016, Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development — Office of Economic Advisors, July 2008.

Yet in November 2010, WHA reported the number of new jobs being created in hospitals had slowed and shortages in positions that have been difficult to fill in the past have been moderated. While the recession may have temporarily stalled demand for workers in Wisconsin hospitals, Warmuth says, “Those who have retrained or are currently training in a health care profession certainly have reason to believe that they will find employment as the economy recovers, older workers retire, and the demand for health care increases in Wisconsin as people age.”

Hope Continues
Whether they will be working in new hospitals or new facilities depends.

“Hospitals are mission-driven organizations that are focused on meeting the health care demands of their communities,” she says. “To meet those needs, they must continuously evaluate the adequacy of their physical spaces. Hospital physical plants age and must be replaced with newer, more energy-efficient systems. New technology and innovations in the delivery of patient care often have different space requirements than were common just a decade ago, usually meaning that existing space must be remodeled or expanded.”

The economy will continue to influence Wisconsin hospitals.

“It is difficult to predict how long it will take for state and national economies to recover,” she says. “Predicting what the demand for health care, and for health care workers, will be in the near future is difficult. We do know, however, hospitals provide steady, family-sustaining jobs, and a strong local health care system is an important factor to industries when they are making decisions about where to locate.” 

By Rebecca Kanable

Rebecca Kanable is a freelance writer from Milton, Wisconsin.