FOND DU LAC (NBC 26) — Getting sick is never fun, especially if you have to travel far away for care. But soon, people in Fond du Lac will have more healthcare options closer to home.
- Froedtert Thedacare broke ground on a new $35 million, 25,000 square foot hospital in Fond du Lac
- Video shows plans and features for the new hospital.
It may be hard to believe—but in a city of more than 44,000 people, there is only one full hospital in Fond du Lac.
Things are about to change though, and that change could save lives.
Cathy Jacobson is the CEO of Froedtert Health. They’re breaking ground on a new hospital in Fond du Lac.
"We see a lot of patients who come to us from this region, so we felt that it was incredibly important to actually provide that care closer to home,” Jacobson said.
The new $35 million, 25,000 square foot hospital will have a 24/7 emergency room, impatient beds, diagnostic capabilities, a pharmacy and physician offices.
Fond du Lac City Manager Joe Moore said bringing more healthcare options to the community will make it a more attractive place to live.
"You're cutting many, many miles away from where the nearest Froedtert or ThedaCare facilities are presently," Moore said.
When this hospital is completed in 2025, it’ll actually be Fond du Lac’s third hospital.
Aurora, which has a clinic on the city’s east side, is in the middle of its own expansion—with a new, 70,000 square foot hospital coming later this year.
More hospitals might not necessarily mean the sticker price of healthcare services go down, but Moore says it’ll have other benefits for patients.
"I don't think that the cost of health care changes, but I do think that some of the logistical overhead involved with people accessing health care goes down when it's local," Moore said.
Froedtert Thedacare Health is also planning to create a health campus in Oshkosh, and Jacobson said they’ll release more information on that soon.
