Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin officials unveiled the health network’s new Drexel Town Square Health Center in Oak Creek on Wednesday evening.
The three-story, 109,000-square-foot health center at the corner of West Drexel Avenue and South Sixth Street includes primary care and urgent care services, an outpatient surgery center and a cancer center. It will begin seeing patients Jan. 18.
The Drexel Town Square Health Center marks an expansion of the health network’s presence south of Milwaukee.
Cathy Jacobson, president and chief executive officer of Froedtert Health, said the facility will allow patients, who previously have traveled from Oak Creek, South Milwaukee, Caledonia and Racine to the network’s flagship campus in Wauwatosa, to receive care closer to home. Market research also indicates there is a need for more physician services in the Oak Creek area, she said.
“It’s part of our broader strategy of getting services outside of the hospital, closer to patients, in lower cost settings,” Jacobson said. “This was a very attractive market area. Once we did the data behind it, we saw we could fill a need.”
It’s the Froedtert & MCW health network’s fourth new health center to open in the past 12 months. Other new facilities to open recently are the 15,000-square-foot Calhoun Health Center in Brookfield; 92,000-square-foot Mequon Health Center; and 77,500-square-foot Sports Science Center near the new Milwaukee Bucks arena in downtown Milwaukee. The network also recently increased its footprint in the Kenosha area, under an expanded affiliation with the former United Hospital System, which is now operating as Froedtert South.
Jacobson said the Drexel Town Square health center caps Froedtert Health’s current wave of building projects, but the network continues to explore more opportunities.
“Opportunities always come our way, which is how we ended up doing three in four months,” she said. “…We obviously are keenly working with our partners at Froedtert South about how we meet that developing growth need to the south, but we’re not going to announce in the next 30 days that No. 5 is coming. We’re not in that stage.”
Froedtert Health expects to employ about 145 full-time and part-time employees at the Drexel Town Square center, which will include 39 physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
Current services at the health center include: primary care, urgent care, an outpatient surgery center, a cancer center, and specialty care, including audiology, cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, ear/nose/throat, general surgery, hand surgery, nutrition and diabetes services, ophthalmology/optometry, orthopedics, pain management, plastic and reconstructive surgery, podiatry and urology.
The health center also offers support services, including mammography, CT, ultrasound, fluoroscopy and general imaging; cardiac diagnostics, rehabilitation services, general infusion services and retail pharmacy, as well as occupational medicine.
Froedtert Health leases the building from HSA PrimeCare, the developer. The architect was Eppstein Uhen Architects and CG Schmidt was the general contractor.
