Aurora Health Care - Aurora Pharmacy

Aurora Health Care is a not-for-profit health care system headquartered in Milwaukee and serving eastern Wisconsin. The system has 15 hospitals, more than 150 clinics, and 70 pharmacies. With 32,000 employees, including 1,800 employed physicians, Aurora is Wisconsin's largest home care organization. Since its formation in 1984, Aurora has expanded through partnerships with independent community hospitals and affiliations with physician organizations as well as organic growth by building new hospitals and medical centers.

History

Formation (1984â€"1987)

In 1984, St. Luke's Medical Center, located on Milwaukee's south side, and Good Samaritan Medical Center, located on Milwaukee's near north side, formed an affiliation called St. Luke's Samaritan Health Care. This partnership was the first in the Milwaukee area of two formerly independent hospitals. Three years later, when Mount Sinai Medical Center merged with Good Samaritan Medical Center in 1987, the partnership changed its name to Aurora Health Care.

The goal of the partnership of the three hospitals was to reduce costs, maintain a high level of care, and compete with the other hospitals in the Milwaukee metropolitan area.

Expansion through partnerships (1988â€"1997)

After forming a partnership with Aurora, the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) of Milwaukee joined Aurora in 1988. The VNA, founded in 1907, is Wisconsin's largest provider of hospice care for children and adults.

Between 1992 and 1995, the health care system added five more hospitals:

Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center (1992)
Milwaukee Psychiatric Hospital (1993)
Hartford Memorial Hospital (1993)
Two Rivers Community Hospital (1993)
West Allis Memorial Hospital (1995)

Two more hospitals were brought into the Aurora system in 1995: the 78-year-old Lakeland Medical Center in Elkhorn, owned by Walworth County, and Trinity Memorial Hospital in Cudahy, founded in 1958 and owned by Catholic Health Corp. Aurora acquired Lakeland Medical Center for about $16 million. In the deal, Aurora assumed the hospital's bond obligations and debt and agreed to contribute to a fund to cover the uninsured. In February 1996, Memorial Hospital of Burlington was the final hospital to join Aurora Health Care .

In September 2001, Aurora BayCare opened as a joint effort of Aurora Health Care and BayCare Clinic. Today, Aurora BayCare Medical Center is a 167-bed, full-service tertiary care hospital serving the Green Bay area and communities throughout northeastern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Expansion through construction (1998 â€" present)

In 1998, Aurora built its first hospital, on the west side of Kenosha, which opened in February 1999. That same year Aurora replaced Two Rivers Community Hospital with a new facility, which opened in June 2000.

Constrained by space at the 17-acre (6.9Â ha) St. Luke's Medical Center campus, Aurora expanded upward by building a 12-story "heart tower" on top of the existing parking structure. The expansion has 270 beds and opened in 2004.

During the spring of 2002, the 5-story Aurora Women's Pavilion was opened at West Allis Memorial Hospital.

On October 27, 2003, the health care system opened a new 84-bed hospital in Oshkosh, which employs over 400 people, and competes with the 157-bed Mercy Medical Center.

Recent activity

In March 2004, Aurora Health Care announced a new QuickCare service, the first of its kind in the Milwaukee area. The kiosks, known as Aurora QuickCare, are staffed by providers who handle basic, common medical issues for a flat rate. Aurora has opened 19 of these facilities including five in Walmart Supercenters.

After leading the health care system since its creation 22 years earlier, G. Edwin Howe retired as president and chief executive officer. Nick Turkal, a family practice physician and president of Aurora's metro Milwaukee region, was chosen as Howe's replacement. Turkal has been employed by Aurora Health Care since 1987.

Summit Hospital

In March 2001, Aurora announced plans to build a new hospital in the Pabst Farms development that was in the jurisdiction of the city of Oconomowoc. The Oconomowoc Common Council rezoned the property in June 2001, preventing the development. Aurora sued Oconomowoc because it believed that the rezoning was done illegally.

Aurora revealed plans in 2004 to construct a hospital in the Pabst Farms development located in the Town of Summit a few hundred feet (around 100 meters) south of the proposed Oconomowoc site. It was to be Aurora's first hospital in Waukesha County. In 2007, the Summit Town Board approved the new Aurora hospital, which was planned to have a capacity of 110 beds and to have been completed in March 2010.

The new Summit home for Aurora Wilkinson Medical Clinic was to open October 26, 2009 and replace the current Aurora Wilkinson Medical Clinic, the Wilkinson Women's Center, and the Aurora Vision Center, all currently in Oconomowoc. The Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic was also to move from its Oconomowoc location to the Summit campus and a new Aurora Pharmacy was to open at the Summit facility.

The new Aurora Medical Center campus in the Town of Summit is at the southeast corner of Interstate 94 and Highway 67. The new Aurora Wilkinson Medical Clinic was to be on the west side of the campus, and the Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic is on the south side.

Advanced Healthcare merger

On July 31, 2007, Advanced Healthcare, an independent practice in southeastern Wisconsin, and Aurora Health Care announced that they would join "under a broad affiliation agreement." According to the agreement, the leadership of Advanced Healthcare would remain intact.

In concert with the purchase announcement, Aurora and Advanced Healthcare constructed a new hospital in Grafton, which opened in late 2010. Health care industry experts estimated the total cost of purchasing Advanced Healthcare and constructing the Grafton hospital at $250 million.

Divisions and subsidiaries

ACL Laboratories

ACL Laboratories is a joint venture between Aurora Health Care and Chicago's largest integrated health care system, Advocate Health Care. It was created in 1997 by a merger of several independent laboratories in Wisconsin and the Greater Chicago area. ACL performs a range of lab tests from routine blood tests to toxicology and drug tests.

Aurora at Home

The Visiting Nurse Association of Milwaukee joined Aurora in 1988 and, as of 2010, employs 886 caregivers that provided 273,092 visits to over 15,000 patients averaging well over 2,200 visits per day while traveling over 3,000,000 miles. In 2015, the Aurora Visiting Nurse Association began doing business as Aurora at Home.

Aurora Family Service

In 1995 Family Service of Milwaukee joined Aurora to become Aurora Family Service. In 2010 Aurora Family Service served nearly 13,000 families with approximately 1,500 families receiving services on any given day.

Aurora Research Institute

Formed in 2010, Aurora Research Institute is a limited liability company of Aurora Health Care headquartered on the campus of Aurora Sinai Medical Center, Milwaukee, that provides infrastructure to translate new discoveries into treatment. Aurora is currently participating in more than 400 clinical trials.

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Launched in 2014 and published quarterly, Auroraâ€™s Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews is a peer-reviewed, open access, multispecialty medical journal devoted to scholarly reports on human health and well-being. JPCRR content is available freely online.

Sports Medicine Institute

Since 1984 the Aurora Sports Medicine Institute has grown to its current size of 14 locations across southeastern Wisconsin. The Institute runs programs many such as Free Injury Evaluations, Performance Running, Performance Golf, among others including arrangements with the Milwaukee Admirals as well as Marquette University.

Hospitals

Aurora BayCare Medical Center, (Green Bay)
Aurora Lakeland Medical Center, (Elkhorn)
Aurora Medical Center in Grafton
Aurora Medical Center in Kenosha
Aurora Medical Center in Manitowoc County (Two Rivers)
Aurora Medical Center in Oshkosh
Aurora Medical Center in Summit
Aurora Medical Center in Washington County (Hartford)
Aurora Memorial Hospital of Burlington (Burlington)
Aurora Psychiatric Hospital (Wauwatosa)
Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center (Milwaukee)
Aurora St. Luke's South Shore (Cudahy)
Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center (Sheboygan)
Aurora Sinai Medical Center (Milwaukee)
Aurora West Allis Medical Center (West Allis)

Jakiani Fajalah.