Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin announced today it will open a new center at its Wauwatosa campus that specializes in care for women with high-risk pregnancies.
The new 7,337-square-foot Fetal Concerns Center will be located adjacent to the hospital’s Herma Heart Institute. The clinic space, slated to open in May, will include five consultation rooms and six exam rooms, where ultrasounds and echocardiograms will be performed.
The clinic space was previously used for research offices, which were relocated within the hospital.
The Fetal Concerns Center, which was founded in 2000, specializes in the diagnosis, treatment and care coordination for women with high-risk pregnancies. Currently, services are housed within Froedtert Hospital’s maternal fetal care center.
Having the designated space within the hospital will allow for more streamlined care and collaboration among physicians, said Kristi Rapp, Fetal Concerns Center program director.
“We are building the new clinic within Children’s Hospital to be able to provide more streamlined care to our high-risk OB moms who have a baby who has some sort of fetal anomaly that will eventually end up getting care after they are born here within Children’s Hospital,” Rapp said. “This will allow us to bring all of the physicians that are participating in the moms’ care into one clinic.”
Children’s Hospital is working with The Boldt Company and Zimmerman Architectural Studios on the project. The cost was not disclosed.
The Fetal Concerns Center physician leadership team includes neonatologists, maternal fetal medicine specialists, fetal and pediatric surgeons, fetal cardiologists, pediatric neurosurgeons and fetal imaging specialists. Several new employees will be hired with the opening of the new clinic, including OB-GYN nurses and medical assistants, Rapp said.
The Fetal Concerns Center is the only program in the state and one of a few in the country that performs complex fetal surgeries and interventions to improve outcomes following delivery, according to the hospital. The program has seen a 45 percent increase in patients over the last four years.
