KENOSHA, Wis. — Downtown Kenosha’s only emergency room has just closed its doors.
As of October 1, Froedert South’s ER has turned into a 24-hour urgent care center, meaning anyone looking for emergency care will have to drive 15-20 minutes away to Froedtert’s Pleasant Prairie location or Aurora Medical Center.
Kenosha residents have mixed reactions to the news. Some residents say they already go to Pleasant Prairie or Aurora, so the change won’t affect them much.
Others say the news is not good to hear.
“It’s actually really disappointing,” said Trisha Sjolander. “I feel like if you have an emergency, having to drive 20 plus minutes to the nearest emergency room, you’re going to disturb a lot of your community that lives down here.”
The change was announced by Froedert South representatives in a release on September 8th.
They said that moving the ER to Pleasant Prairie’s campus will leave room for more centered community care at the Froedtert South Campus.
“We’re exceptionally proud of the role Froedtert Kenosha Hospital has played for our community as we weathered the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Froedtert South President & CEO Ric Schmidt. “Our pivot to treat COVID patients demonstrated our commitment to meeting the needs of our community. And now, with our plans to continue repositioning, we look forward to the next chapter in how we’ll continue providing the care that members of our communities need most.”
The release says the Kenosha hospital will now have space to host inpatient mental health services as well as the new 24-hour urgent care taking its place.
Rick Jacob is a former Kenosha County firefighter who says not having emergency services close by will make a big difference
“We’ve got the big fire stations right here and everything, you know, and if they need to they would call flight for life in. So, I don’t think they should close it.”
Sjolander agrees and says that not having an ER will prevent people from coming into the city.
“I mean all of the work that we’re putting into downtown and having it be more of this upbeat center for people to come and feel safe and feel good -- taking something like that away, I could totally see deterring someone from wanting to stay here.”
According to Froedtert, roughly 60 patients a day utilized the emergency center, with most of those patients coming in with issues that will be taken care of at the new urgent care.
About five patients per day need emergency services and will be transferred to Pleasant Prairie.
