This new hosp is the best thing for Janesville. When it comes to your health don't go to a hosp where technology is lacking, and it is I worked there. Who cares where the money comes from I'm certainly willing to pay what I need to for my health and a state of the art facility. Someone commented on the need to bring jobs to the city. A new hosp does create jobs...nurses, CNA's, drs, therapist. A lot of those GM employees entered the nursing program at Blackhawk and will be graduating May 2010...just in time for a new hosp.

Competition is good for business and obviously Mercy welcomes it,as should Dean. I have been employed at Mercy for many many years and would trust my life and those of my loved ones in the capable hands of the docs there. Mercy has superb doctors,on the other hand,so does Dean. Sure the Dean doctors ship their patients off to a Madison hospital when a cardiac cath is needed (a very minor procedure). Do the patients liked to be shipped somewhere else when this is a procedure that has been done thousands of times at Mercy? People will ALWAYS complain about the wait time in the E/R or this or that. You WILL find this everywhere! The grass rarely is greener on the other side of the fence,we will see soon. I personally do not feel another hospital is best for Janesville,maybe another Dean Clinic on that side of town (with an E/R as well). I hear negative comments ALL THE TIME about this or that about Mercy AND Dean. WHY NOT WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY! It has ALWAYS been Mercy vs. Dean,and it always will be! Not everyone likes Javon Bea,BUT he has done ALOT for this community and staff since he came! The pay is not the best at all! I cannot complain about mine though, or maybe I could. Hospital FRONT LINE people are NEVER paid what they are worth! Personally speaking the floor on the hospital that I work on in almost ALWAYS full,and I have noticed the increase over the past 3-6 months. NEVER in all my years have I seen it this busy. People are always quick to blame about Mercy...or whatever! DOCTORS ARE NOT GOD, although a few chosen differ with that opinion. Like I said,change is good,choice is good. NOW only if we could get another cable company in Janesville to compete with Charter we would have it made! ha!

Unknown, why do you think taxes will go up? You keep saying that, but I don't think you get it. St. Mary's is a private company. If anything, it will be good for our tax base. As far as where the money is coming from, it's coming from SSM.
Anybody notice the full-page Mercy ad attacking Dean/St.Mary's in today's Gazette? This is not exactly good public relations. It makes Mercy look like they're afraid of competition. Or worse yet, like a spoiled child that suddenly has to share its room with a new sibling.

I also had dean care insurance and was switched off of it. THANK GOD!! if not for that i would probably be dead right now, literally. I went to my doctor at Dean riverview for chest pains in 2005. i was 28 years old. First they said i must have some sort of respiratory infection and gave me some medicine. that didnt work so i went back FIVE TIMES and they kept brushing me off. the last diagnosis was chest wall pain. Well i decided to go to Mercy, even before my insurance switched over, and GUESS WHAT? I had a 95% blocked artery to my heart and had to have angioplasty surgery and a stent put in. THANK GOD FOR the competent doctors and nurses at Mercy. Those incompetent fools at Dean almost cost me my life.

and for all you fools complaining about wait times at the ER, it is like that everywhere. Maybe if people with bloody noses and petty crap like that wouldnt flood the ER there would be more beds available. which would speed up service

The two facilities will be each financed separately. The hospital by SSM and the clinic by Dean. This is not n uncommon business practice

I saw the Fact Sheet that was made available on the Dean website and it indicates the following: $164 million in economic impact annually to the community, including approximately $40 million in payroll and $124 million in sales revenue.

Rather then our property or sales taxes going up, we will benefit from taxes generated by their new business. The city will have an increased tax base and provide us with more services and assist in not increasing our taxes.

I am thrilled that St. Mary's is finally coming to Janesville. Since Mr. Bea and his board took over Mercy and made it a cash cow for themselves, I have stayed at Dean or gone to Madison for hospital care. People deserve a choice in everything and this new hospital is long overdue.

I hope the small size of this new Dean hospital doesn't mean it will just be a magnet to refer patients to Madison's St. Mary's.

Having only lived in Janesville for about 10 years now and only knowing a little bit of the Mercy and Dean saga, I think it’s funny how many people in this town are all ruffled about this new hospital. I am very disappointed to see that our State Representative disapproves of the new hospital as well. I have always been a huge advocate of Judy Robson, but I don't think she's looking at the big picture. Janesville has grown exponentially since I moved here and is bursting at the seams from all sides. As our population grows older, we're going to have a great need for more modern healthcare facilities. In addition, has anyone take into effect how many Janesville residents visit Madison or Rockford hospitals instead of going to Mercy? I don't believe that Mercy is a terrible choice, but wouldn't it be nice to have a choice? I believe that Javon Bea has done great things for Janesville, but a little competition may be good for Mercy. If Javon really thinks that a 50 to 100 bed hospital is going to hurt him that much, perhaps he had better review his business plan.

Riverview clinic has been in Janesville since the early 1900's, first as the Pember-Nuzum Clinic and now as part of Dean. The docs there really are members of the community and as such will make sure it's a success. All of this is being done for the benefit of Janesville and its people. It's a win-win situation.

My concern is that if Dean/St. Mary's Hospital doesn't make the profits it intends to make, it will pull out of Janesville just as it is doing in Blue Island, Illinois. That city is left with a big void in hospital service. Lucky for us, if Dean pulls out of our city, Mercy will still be here, just as it always has been. You watch, if the money isn't there, Dean will be gone. Their parent company is HUGE and this Dean Hospital will just be a little fish in their sea.

Kudos to the Dean/St. Mary's organization for bringing a positive new change and direction for Janesville. In a time when we have a down economy and a recession in the country, I would think everyone would welcome new opportunity and new jobs to the Rock County area. It's a good thing. Really.

Javon, what a classy and professional response! What do you care? You don't even see Mercy docs...you go back to your resident state of Minnesota.

I'm one of the forced new Mercy patients. I need to have surgery but I have to wait 2 1/2 weeks (in pain) until I can even get a consult with the surgeon. My husband had the same surgery last year at Dean and waited just one day to see the surgeon and had the operation 2 days later. I'm just hoping my gallbladder won't burst before my wait is over.

Jovan Bea was not thinking of the patients when he took on GM customers, he was thinking of the patients money. Rather ironic considering Mercy is a non-profit organization.

i will tell what is reckless, when javon bea took on all those gm emloyees, i have to wait until june to see my specialist, because there is such an overload of patients, and it takes me up to three weeks to see my regular doctor, these doctors are terribly over worked, a five hour wait, at the hospital. unreal. of course he is worried people hate mercy health care. so we can all just sit back now and watch this sideshow.

I for one am thrilled, that we will have a choice in hospitals. I do not care for Mercy. I am a cancer patient, and I feel this is America, and we should be able to choose where we go for medical care, etc. I have been going to the Dean Riverview since I was 21 years old, they know me, my history, and I receive excellent care. I receive chemo weekly, and the GM patients that had to just stop and go back to Mercy were not happy whatsoever! There shouldn't be HMO's, or PPO's, it should just be medical and our right to choose! As for the economy, it worries me too! Only God knows, and it should be kept in his hands!

Interesting reading from an article from last year in an Illinois newspaper (Northwest Herald) on Mercy.

"Mercy Health System is making a second attempt to build a hospital in Crystal Lake, three years after its first attempt became embroiled in a kickback scandal that resonated all the way to the governor’s office.

The letter from Mercy President and CEO Javon Bea said this plan would be even larger than the original, with a 128-bed general acute-care hospital and a neighboring physician office building at a cost of $224 million. Mercy’s 2003 application asked for a 70-bed hospital and neighboring office building at a cost of $81.4 million.

“Mercy has been approached by numerous individuals, including Mercy physicians, independent physicians, community leaders, elected officials and area residents concerning the importance of having more health-care services, more health-care providers, and more inpatient beds in McHenry County,” said Barbara Bortner, Mercy vice president of marketing.

Mercy’s original effort to build the hospital in the same location died in May 2005 when McHenry County Judge Maureen McIntyre ruled that the planning board violated its own rules to approve it. The April 2004 approval resulted in several federal indictments and Gov. Rod Blagojevich dismissing the entire board.

But Mercy’s latest attempt might be fighting more than the stain of corruption. Its letter came two days before the state law establishing the planning board was set to expire."

Again, live by your values not change them to make it work for the audience.

"This community needs more hospital beds like we need a hole in the head"...such an eloquent quote from Javon Bea, CEO of Mercy. The Mercy Board of Directors should be embarrassed for not having residency requirements for their entire staff, especially Bea. I would like to know how much Mercy spends on his Janesville house expenses and his travel expenses so he can commute back and forth to Minnesota. Let him cover his own costs if he chooses to live and pay taxes in another state. Wake up Mercy Board!!

Assuming no infrastructure changes, like the roads for instance, are needed the taxpayers will probably dodge this one. But it's very likely additional development will occur after the hospital project is operational. That will likely require infrastructure changes to the area and that will more than likely involve taxpayer money.

I'm not opposed to the project as competition is a good thing and I'm not opposed to the development of the area. I don't even oppose taxpayer money being spent in support of this project. I just think it's premature to suggest this won't cost the taxpayer anything and I'm pretty certain that it will stimulate development that will sooner or later.

SarahB, you may not be the only one that feels that way. Myself, I figure it's SSM/Dean's business, their money, and they know best how to spend it. We don't have a public input aspect to this other than zoning, location, and other ancillary issues. If we did still have a hospital bed management agency at the state level, I might have a different opinion, but I'm not even sure I would support such an entity existing.
.
(Certainly the idea that we're going to be taxed more to pay for this has no validity. SSM/Dean is private.)
.
In terms of whether this is a good idea vis-a-vis the current economy, we are starting a recession, but recessions rarely last more than 18 months. This hospital won't open for two-plus years. Janesville has not experienced extensively any part of the real estate bubble and we have a solid and diverse manufacturing-based economy. That may weaken after GM leaves sometime in the next decade, but SSH/Dean is thinking at least that far in the future. This is a long-term capital investment, and that alone is probably good for Janesville.
.
Jakiao, you may be able to see a positive for yourself. Both E. Racine and S. Wright will see more development, and not just industrial but commercial. Ultimately this could increase your property values. If you can stand the noise until then.
.
Now, I have one last question regarding a perennial Janesville gnawbone. Does this count as an East Side development only, or is it even slightly a South Side development? Heh.

To the person that asked if he lived in Janesville, yes. He has a house in Janesville that is provided for him and listed under Mercy's name. He also has his family home in Mn., an apt. in Mn, and condos in Fl.

Interesting reads:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:WIw...
******************************************
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:sw4...

I think it would be nice to have a choice. However if both Janesville hospitals treat about the same number of patients or less than Mercy currently does, then I'd still prefer one of the more experienced hospitals/doctors in Madison. I recently had elective surgery and choose Madison because they do more of the procedure. Can't beat experience so I'd still choose Madison if possible

My point about the GM / Union / Mercy connection was just as you pointed out.
It was a "negotiated agreement" of which the union is an integral part.
If the majority of union members wanted Mercy, the got it.
If the majority wanted Dean, obviously they didn't get it, and that issue would be between them and the union leadership.
Either way, the union represents them, so yes, it is a union thing.
They do have a say.

Mercy holds a monopoly in Janesville. Anyone who has studied monopolies within a capitalist society knows that this is very bad for cost efficiency.
Now that there is going to be competition, Mercy will have to step up to better quality of service while lowering costs. That is efficiency.
I have followed Mr. Bea's comments related to trying to install a new hospital in Illinois and with these comments of the Dean system.
It is truely amazing how he can take such a position when he, himself was on the other side of this same issue not to long ago.
Could it be that he is concerned about his multi million dollar salary from a (now get this) non-profit corporation??

The GM employees is not just a union thing. It is part of the agreement (contract) that was negotiated between the two parties.
GM was interested in getting rid of all hmo's because of costs. The union stepped up during negotations and showed that Mercy has uaw members employed there.

After receiving care at Mercy for 3 days at Mercy last summer in which I continually got worse, my Dean doctor transferred me to St Mary's because Mercy was not equipped to do what I needed done. I spent the first day in surgury, the second day on a resperator and 10 more days at St Mary's. St Mary's and staff saved my life!! The staff at Mercy was very nice but very uneducated and unequipped. The nurse on the last night of my stay at Mercy actually asked my husband what to do for me because they didn't know what to do for my latest severe breathing attack. I am overjoyed with this plan for another hospital.
Choice is always better than a monopoly. Jovan Bea needs to check out his own hospital and stop bragging about his meaningless paper awards. What counts is patient survival

It's time for a change in Janesville. Does Javon Bea even live in Janesville?! According to what I've read, he doesn't have a grasp on what is going here and our feeling that the service and care at Mecry is bad. They seem to be wraped up in winning awards, not the peoples health and having affordable health care choices.

As far as GM employees having to change from Dean to Mercy, that's a union thing. Plain and simple.

It is about time! I am so glad that people in Janesville will have a CHOICE at last! Mercy, like Charter is all we had. I know people that go to Beloit or Edgerton ER because they are sick and tired of Mercy. The staff in the Mercy ER are so rude at times, and the wait is so long! If you don't have health insurance you are treated like a second class citizen and it is discusting!! I think Mercy is going to be very surprised and hurting for business once this new hospital opens. They will see that people do want a choice and are ready for a change!! The GM people are very upset at having to change to Mercy, but they had no choice. Imagine having the same doctor for years and then suddenly being told they can't see that doctor anymore and have it be covered! Hopefully this new hospital will have a psych unit that is able to take more patients that Mercy refuses to take. This will let patients that live in Janesville stay in Janesville. Yeah, it is okay for Mercy to open a clinic right in front of the Beloit clinic, but no other system is allowed to open another hospital in Janesville?? Ha! What a joke!!!

The best thing Mr. Bea could do right now is shut up. I am sick of the gazette's biased coverage of this story. The gazette reporters are making this a dean/mercy issue to sell papers. A new business who pays non-reduced taxes and gets no federal or state funding should be welcomed in Janesville.

medical prices will go up. they always do. next will be a new h.s. proposed by our school board now that the upgrades are underway at parker and craig. they will say, "it will only raise the property tax a couple hundred a year for twinty-five years"

Am I the only one on today's boards that thinks we do NOT need another hospital in southern Wisconsin?! People, wake up! The economy in our area is just starting to feel the hits headed our way. Janesville is known for its manufacturing base and manufacturing jobs are being cut across the country. For example, directly related to the decrease in manufacturing, my brother in northern California reports that home values have dropped 40 percent and one in three homes is facing foreclosure. Because of these two facts, construction work, and sales of cars, furniture, carpet, money spent on vacations, etc., have all dropped drastically. In fact, this brother worked 30 years at the same newspaper as an editor and was laid off two months ago. His thriving newspaper, in a once fast-growing community called Tracy, has seen such an extreme drop in advertising that it has been reduced from a seven-day-a-week publication to one putting out a paper just two days a week. This type of economic crisis is starting to show up in all areas of the United States. When people lose jobs with health-care benefits, they lose those benefits and either fork over big bucks (often $500 or more monthly for just a single person) or they become another uninsured consumer. Obviously, from the comments here and the story regarding an SSM hospital in Illinois, neither Mercy nor Dean will be offering free services to the growing number of uninsured. What has so many area residents in denial that this could (and, possibly, will) occur here? We need another hospital about as much as we need another strip club. And that is the naked truth!

watch out mercy your days of becoming a monoply are over!!!! its about time they were put in thier place.

I don't see it that way in this case JSM. I'm not a Gazette fan but I think if the CEO of Dean / St.Mary's were to be as arrogant as Bea has been in the past, they would have had as much coverage. To their' credit, they weren't. Thus the perception of bias. When you're the only game in town, as was Mercy in the hospital business, the news perception can be somewhat opaque.

DanHartung,

My property goes up to about 50 feet from the corner of County O and J. The campus area you highlighted is a 45-second drive from my house (driveway being just past County O as you head south on J).

The construction work is what worries us the most as we know we'll hear it. This isn't the first time something within that range of our home has gone up. The last one being the quary of rock from the Silla and Sons quary per the request of the WiDOT.

We're not thrilled about the location of the new hospital campus. We also are confused as to why LaPrairie Township never said a word about this.

Wisconsinheat, I think today's letter from the editor is more of a CYA for why the original story came piecemeal, with a picture of a highway sign, etc. Given the scale of the Gazette, I can't fault them too much on that short of a turnaround time. But I do have to fault them for lack of objectivity. This would be a great opportunity for the Gazette to look in depth into health care issues facing all of us in the community, especially given the upcoming elections. Instead, Javon is turning it into a turf war, and is making the Gazette his mouthpiece.

What about companies here in Janesville that have Insurance that Mercy does not accept. Our Insurance from a local dealership is not accepted at Mercy but is accepted at Dean/St Mary's so now we can get treatment local with our local Doctors. My nephew just had emergency surgery at Mercy and is now responsible for the entire bill because Mercy would not accept his insurance. St Marys would have. He is employed by the railroad.

THANK YOU DEAN/ST. MARYS!!!!! I am a nurse who commutes to Madison 5 days a week and would LOVE to fill one of those positions at St. Marys!

Also, as a patient (and former employee) who refuses to step foot in Mercy Hospital, I am thrilled to finally have another option! It's about time we have a quality hospital in this city! This is the best news I've heard in a long, long time!

For those who seem to think the Gazette is biased towards Mercy, you'd never know by today's editorial.
.
As far as state oversite on hospital beds, Wisconsin scrapped that in the 80's. There must have been a reason.

Let us not forget years ago when Mercy was a hospital and Riverview a free standing clinic. Mercy decided to go into the clinical buisness thereby taking some of Riverview's patient base. Mercy continued with buying out the clinic on the east side and putting in Mercy West. All clinical competing with Riverview. I never heard Riverview complaing that there wasn't enough of a patient base to justify all of the clinic's. Now Dean Riverview is entering the hospital realm and Mercy is crying foul Sounds like sour grapes to me.

BIGMIKE, it is a more fundamental conversation about business practices, perception, and competition. You are right when you say the names are interchangeable until you confuse the protections afforded a non-profit, a profit motive, a $14+ million paycheck, and the corporate expertise of Javon Bea. Don't get me wrong, this is not personal. I only have a hospital preference by default after seeing first hand examples of policy at its finest. Your comments seen below add emphasis to my point:
"Mr. Bea took a small hospital and grew it into one of the leading health care systems in the U.S."
His job is not to create an empire under the cloak of the not-for-profit umbrella. $14 million would go a long way to assist some of the area's people that used to (before the State's AG spanked Bea) get sued and have their sub-poverty wages taken for charges that were in often incorrect, in dispute, or billed at the non-discount rate. Essentially, people without insurance, without the means to stand up for their rights, people without the knowledge of how to resolve conflicts and therefore often ignore them, people that found tough times but never knew the hospital had funds given to them to assist in hard times are all examples of the people that the rest of the community never hears about.
LOCALBUSINESS summed it up well when they said, "Mercy has lost the loyalty of many of us in the community. It does not matter what million-dollar figure your salary has, you must still treat others with respect and practice with integrity. Mr. Bea, you have lost sight of these lessons in life."

Jakiao, obviously the campus will be near you, but I wouldn't call the Gazette's map very accurate. (One of the maps placed the Blain Supply building over where the motel is ...)
.
This is my guess at the property boundaries:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&a...
Unfortunately Google has poor satellite resolution for our area. Here it is on FlashEarth (but I couldn't draw the shape):
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=42.667812...
.
I doubt that Dean owns any property south of the power line and bluff edge, which is roughly where the city limits are as well. The old pits, including the storage facility (that is building a new structure!), are in the township. From an aerial view, the hospital land is all currently a meadow and was probably leased as farmland up till now.
.
I wouldn't be surprised if the hospital sought a south entrance to County O/Delavan Drive at some point in the future, though.
.
As for the capacity and beds issue, it's obviously worth considering whether Wisconsin needs a hospital facilities commission like Illinois has. But the experience that Mercy had, with their contractor (apparently acting on his own) giving kickbacks to Illinois commissioners to help Mercy secure the license, should give Wisconsin pause. If we were to have such an entity we would want to be sure it was free of the possibility of the same weakness.

Besides Javon Bea's total lack of public relations skills, I'm just as appalled by Judy Robson's stance on this. I guess she has her own bias on this, being on the UW board, but she once again shows that she is no friend to business in this community. Not that she needs to buddy up to the extremists at WMC, but to condemn Dean for expanding in Janesville is ludicrous.

That's why I said both the number of hits and the types of headlines. Also, you exactly proved my point by stating that the article appears to be more of a press release than an article. If it is a press release then the Gazette should expressly say so. Since the Gazette has not, I can only surmise that they took Mercy's press release and tweaked it slightly.

Personally, I am for having another hospital in this city, especially a hospital which is representative of a different health system. Up until now, it has been very difficult to get an unbiased second opinion without having to go out of town. Actually, I have always had to go out of town to get a second opinion and I am always happy that I have done so. In general, I have found that other cities with multiple hospitals compete to provide their patients with up-to-date therapies and more modern equipment. Could the empty beds at Mercy be indicative of a population who prefers to have more complicated surgeries and illnesses treated at the larger facilities in Madison and Milwaukee? I think this might be the case....Janesville people with serious illnesses go to Mercy in an emergency to get stabilized and then transfer to hospitals and doctors in other cities.

JSM--Mercy is a locally owned company employing hundreds of people in the Gazette's reading area. Just because there are more Mercy articles than Dean articles doesn't mean the reporting is fair, balanced or unbiased. And the award article you are referring to appears to be more of a press release than a news story.

Area hospitals around Crystal Lake, Illinois did not want to have Mercy compete in their service area. Mercy's comments then were that residents would have a broader choice and that this would raise the bar for quality. How can Mercy now state the opposite?

At some point, a business and its leaders have to have a set of values and demonstrate commitment to these values by their behavior. Without this level of ethical business practice, Mercy has lost the loyalty of many of us in the community.

It does not matter what million-dollar figure your salary has, you must still treat others with respect and practice with integrity. Mr. Bea, you have lost sight of these lessons in life.

I am pretty sure that both hospitals will do just fine. Those who like Mercy, well, go to Mercy, and those who don't go to Dean. That is the beauty of choice and competition. It is this simple!

Bigmike, as a matter of logic, wouldn't you support Dr. Samitt's same entrepreneurship and growth for the community? Further, if you are so confident about Javon Bea and Mercy, then this is no big deal. Vote with your dollar and keep going to Mercy.

JVLRDR -- a 1,500 word article on some award is what I would consider a "splash". Just type "Mercy" in the search box and you'll enjoy all of the Gazette's fine reportage on Mercy. By comparison, try typing "Dean" in the search box. You can see for yourself the amount of hits you get and the types of headlines you get back.

Ditto to BigMike. I love this city and I notice all the postitive things Mercy does for Janesville. Mercy has done so much to boost this economy and provide great care. Being a leader and making decisions doesn't always gain you friends, but, I'm glad Javon Bea has made the decisions he has...our community is stronger because of it.

Mr. Bea took a small hospital and grew it into one of the leading health care systems in the U.S. I would never set foot in a Dean/St. Marys Hospital. If Mercy did not exist and we had a big St. Marys hospital and Mercy decided to build a big campus..I bet the comments here wouldn't hardly change except for the words Dean and Mercy. Get a clue people.

I'm puzzled by all the comments that the Gazette is pro-Mercy. I've never seen a local newspaper so "out to get" the largest local employer in a community as the Gazette is to Mercy. This includes misleading headlines and "investigative" reporting without all the details. When Mercy received the most prestigious quality award in the country, the Gazette barely made a splash.

I think a Dean Care hospital in Janesville is a super idea. I had heart bypass at St Marys and was very happy with the staff and quality of service.

Of course Mercy is going to cry foul. They stand to loose a third of their hospital business once the new Dean Care hospital is open. On the other side of the coin I imagine it "irks" Dean to pay Mercy for hospital rooms for Dean Care patients.

Anyone who thinks increased competition raises prices needs to take another business/economy course and pay attention this time :)

Ditto, I am in the same boat.

Thank you, beachsexton. Your depth of knowledge clearly surpasses my own. I just want to clarify one thing: I have nothing against the individual Mercy employees (nurses, MA's, physicians, et al.) nor do I have anything against GM or the union. As a matter of fact, I have had good direct experiences with Mercy employees. But, I do not like how Javon Bea is reacting to Dean's plan for a new hospital, and I don't like how the Gazette is reporting on this. I generally don't like how Javon Bea runs things. I think the fact that Dean is physician-owned might have something to do with the fact that it has a lower attrition rate than Mercy. So, Mercy folks (Javon excepted), keep up the good work, Dean folks keep up the good work, and Gazette folks -- keep working.

JSM, you are dead on; well said!
I am impressed the the Gazette has allowed the bloggers/commenter's negative comments about Mercy stay up. It is a nice change of pace to allow equal time for the people to voice the strong anti-Mercy feelings they harbor. You will always have some people with bad feelings toward a company, group, or in this case healthcare system. It is not Mercy's intent to please everyone, but I do feel the recent changes Mercy has made, or been forced to make, are just a few of the unmistakable indicators of the problems far too many people think of when they think of Mercy Health Systems. The recent Wisconsin State Attorney General's reprimand of Mercy that forced a change of policy making that suddenly stopped all efforts to bring suit and/or garnish the wages to collect for unpaid bills. Internal patient accounting deficiencies, failure to provide services at reduced/no cost to low/no income patients, and over aggressive collection practices are some of the reasons along with many that have been listed in the reader comments. The obvious need for an image makeover is evident in the barrage of public relations campaigns (billboards, commercials, and radio ads) we have been bombarded with. The Mercy link to the investigation into the corruption/insider dealings in the hospital and territorial expansion into Illinois is another example.
The 'market forces' behind the GM deal, could not be kept silenced forever. As the readers are pointing out the "actions that spoke so loud" are not representative of the people that make up GM, but of the fiscal responsibility GM has to the shareholders. Yet another example of the bottom line blurring the vision of Bea's perceived reality. The cozy relationship the Gazette has historically had with Mercy has provided cover for Bea's empire building. Maybe Bea should re-examine his efforts to drive out/over competition. The "General Motors action is key” comment is a in-your-face example of the outlook Bea has. He can say this because the losses realized in the short term pale in comparison to the potential gains realized in the long term by using GM's 'choice' as a marketing tool to other businesses in the area.

AMEN is all Ican say to invests comments......I will never step foot in to Mercy Hospital again as a patient!

The position of the campus worries me. Originally I thought they'd place it on Highway 11 near Avalon road, but this puts the hospital almost across the street from my quiet home in the country.

Granted, the property they're going into is mostly a pit the city uses, but this will disrupt our whole peaceful and quiet living with the construction and then future use of the building.

It's troublesome, and I know this will upset the few of us who live directly around the new campus site...

Javon Bea sure likes to talk big.

Javon, look at it this way if you had better care at Mercy Hospital maybe you could fill all the beds. I told my wife “if I started to have the big one, through me in the back of my truck and drive me to Madison. If I didn’t make it, it still would of better care than I would have got at Mercy.” He is scared, that is why he can’t keep his mouth shut. Maybe now he will have a better shot if he has the big one.

I love the idea of a new hospital in Janesville. Now with gas prices so high I won’t have to go to Madison to get quality health care.

Oh by the way Javon, GM is not what it use to be to this city. Keep talking and shaking.

Northman, I think this article sets the tone from the headline. Who is "some"? "Some" is Mercy, more specifically, Javon Bea. The Gazette tries to shore it up with a nonspecific quote from Robson and a quote from a former Mercy employee. Look at the verbs and adjectives the writer uses in conjunction with Bea "challenged", "skeptical", et al. Also, the Gazette chose to do some crackerjack investigation into the hospital bed situation, hopefully to back its boy, Mercy. It also chose to bring up the old chestnut GM (another Gazette favorite). Again, the Gazette tried to make it seem like it was about quality when it is all about the dollars. I said it before and I'll say it again, Mercy is losing money on the GM contract this first year. Consider it a "doorbuster" a la Walmart.

Here, a business is building a new facility that will create more jobs for the community, draw more more people to the community (increasing Janesville's tax base), help other local businesses and better serve the community. This should be a positive story for Dean, and the community. When Mercy announced its new trauma unit there was nary a mention of Dean. Why is the $14.4 million man Javon Bea getting more space than Samitt in an article about Dean?

The graphic the Gazette put up worries me as it covers my whole house and property along County Road J. I wonder if they have the exact mapping of where the campus will be. If that is accurate, then what does that mean of my home and the others living around me?

I can tell you alot of people that had to change to Mercy from Dean because of GM's decision were not happy. It's too bad Mercy basically has a gag order on it's employees. They could tell you how bad it is to work there but then they would get fired or pushed out one way or the other. It will be interesting to see how many docs/nurses leave Mercy when this goes down. Yeah, I would say Bea is a little nervous. Alot of the doctors and staff are not happy at Mercy. Is Mercy still flying out neuro-cases, because even though they have that big new facility, they don't have the staff for it? People tell me they have higher turn-over rates than Taco Bell. I say bring in Dean, it can only help the citizens of this community. Well everyone except Bea.

Finally!!! Javon Bea getting a dose of his own medicine. Didn't he try to do the same thing in Crystal Lake, IL. Wasn't his rationale the same as Dean/St. Mary's. So why doesn't competition work in Janesville when,apparently, it does in Crystal Lake (and Beloit). Simple answer. Mr. Bea has been creating the truth in Janesville for 20 years now. Does the fable "The Emperors Clothes" ring a bell? Ladies and gentlemen, competition works in healthcare, just like in every American industry. The Dean/St. Marys hospital will be good for Janesville. Let's face it, the existing Mercy Hospital complex is outdated and is in the wrong location given Janesville's geographic growth. The Dean east side complex will be convenient and state-of-the-art. Last question. Didn't Mercy 10 or so years ago buy land near I-90 and Hwy 26 to build a new hospital. I remember seeing the story in the Gazette. What happend to that plan? Is it possible that the healthcare future of Janesville was put on the back burner in the interest of Bea's quest to build an empire in Illinois? His ego is legendary. Now a competitor comes in to do what he should have been done 10 years ago. I say we tip our hats to Dean/St. Marys and support them all the way. As for Mr. Bea, if I were a Board member I would be questioning his business strategy and judgement skills and whether it was time find a CEO whose focus was Janesville and southern Wisconsin.

I don’t have a dog in this fight – no real preference for either Dean or Mercy – but I find JSM’s comment interesting. I re-read the article above, and it looks pretty balanced to me. I’d like to know where the bias is, and what makes the article pro-Mercy or anti-Dean?

It's also interesting to note that SSM just this week announced that they are closing a hospital in Blue Island, IL due to losses related to treating uninsured patients.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/c...

Kenbjammen-Beloit will be fine. Most people around here didn't notice, but BMH built a beautiful new facility down in the Rockton area that opened last december. It's more of a Health and Wellness facility, with doctors from Beloit Clinic having offices there, Urgent care, full radiology capabilities, physical and occupational therapy, and a community health club/wellness center. On the same campus, there is an assisted/independent living facility. They were smart to build something in a growing, relatively affluent area with a focus on outpatient services, which is where you need to focus on to be profitable in health care these days (even though they're all considered "not for profit" ventures).

The Gazette is so pro-Mercy -- why don't you just stick a picture of Javon Bea next to the article and properly mark it as an editorial or at least give the Mercy marketing team credit at the byline? If the Gazette is going to be so biased, at least have the integrity not to accept Dean's advertising dollars, which must cost a fair amount on the front web page. Bea thinks it's "reckless". What does he care? It is Dean's money. It isn't as if it is being built in a TIF district. Thank goodness Dean has an innovator at the helm like Sammitt, not a complacent fat cat like Bea. And finally, Judy Robson. Judy, a nurse, who receives the overwhelming majority of her campaign contributions from the healthcare industry according to public records. Judy, are you worried that this will cut into your take?

Mr. Bea's GM comment was shallow at best. The reason that GM chose to allow Mercy as the HMO provider was simply because some of Mercy's employees are UAW local 95 members.
This happened during the contract negotiations with GM and UAW.
I for one will be happy to not need a compact with my wife to rush me to Madison if anything happens anymore.
The employees of Mercy are great, the policies of Mercy are what I am against.

The biggest loser in this group will be Beloit Hospital. With their struggling census and lack of enumerous out outlying facilities to draw from and a new hospital less than 10 miles away it may force them out of business.

I am still shocked over the low census at Mercy Hospital. Of course, more procedures are being done on an outpatient basis but that low census seems extreme. When I worked at SwedishAmerican Hospital in Rockford, Il, my unit's beds were pretty much filled on most days. Also, with 90 patients, staff numbers have to be low. Most facilities send nurses home without pay for the day if there are not enough patients.

Mr. Bea...at least if a patient comes to the Dean Health System with a hole in the head, it would be fixed right the first time!!!!!!!

My plat book indicates the site is in Janesville city limits. It's actually along Business Hwy 11, not the interchange to the south as some (myself included) were led to believe yesterday.

Dean purchased the land years ago as stated in a previous post. I've been waiting for this announcement for years. I remember reading about the land purchase back when Dean initially bought the land so many years ago. I'm just bummed now that my insurance switched to Mercy that I will not be able to take advantage of it when it opens.

Then why did Mr. Bea put a Mercy Clinic right in front of the Beloit Clinic? It makes no sense to duplicate, correct?

Mr Bea has had nothing good to say about Dean's new hospital and that is not suprising. Competition is always going to be there. I am sure that when Woodman's was the only grocery store in Janesville, they did not want to see anymore stores open either, but it has happened and everyone has accepted this. He made a comment relating to the GM transfer from DeanCare to MercyCare. When that change was made, did anyone bother to ask the actual patients/employees of GM how they felt about the move from Dean to Mercy. I am a VERY happy employee of Dean and when working with the patients, they were not happy about the GM transfer of insurance. It wasn't the employees of GM that wanted this change, it was the people in the office who chose for their employees. They made the choice because the package was cheaper. Is cheaper always better healthcare? STOP all this nonsense! There are always going to be people who like Dean better than Mercy and Mercy better than Dean. I for one am happy about the different choices for my own healthcare. If I am dying or in need of emergency care, I don't care where you take me as long as the healthcare facility saves my life if possible and does the best to it's ability. Plus put the patient and their families first. That's the most important thing. Let's get over this and move on.

Probably during all those "closed sessions" that the Gazette reported on back during the Great Land Swap Debate.
*
A relative called to tell me no one in her subdivision in LaPrairie wants a huge hospital campus in their backyard. Apparently their attitude is the next thing half the town will be developed with Walgreens, CVS and more places for medical staff to grab lunch.
*
Who currently owns this parcel?

Grow up Javon and take it like a man. the paychecks won't be as big for you now. Ask how many of the GMers wanted to come to Mercy and I will guarantee it is a low amount. by the way how much of a loss did you take for that contract

Dean Health Systems purchased the land in 2000

Interesting to see the various reactions to this move.
.
Of course, Mercy is condemning the decision. They have had a lock on the market for hospital care for generations and don't want the competition. Such a reaction is completely understandable . . . and completely wrong.
.
Sen. Robson's reaction is no surprise, either. She doesn't believe in free markets and competition, especially when it comes to health care. She has embraced single payer, government run health care for years and can't bring herself to admit that free market competition in health care will bring the same benefits to consumers that it does in every other sector: improved quality, expanded choices and lower prices.
.
This one will be fun to watch.

When did the town of La Prairie approve the sale of farmland for this project?