nurse4u: will you be proud to be a Mercy partner when they start closing ancillary clinics, downsizing departments and consolidating other services? Mercy--aka Javon Bea--has gotten too big for its britches. You can rearrange the deck chairs all you want: the Titanic will still sink.

No profession is immune to budget cuts and downsizing. You can immunize your patients from measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis, tetanus, diptheria, polio, varicella--but you can't immunize yourself from fat cats who like to get fatter.....

Becca- Is it so horrible to take pride in your career, or for your place of employment? He is not lieing. Mercy has some of the best ratings. In addition, Mercy has a Homeless Shelter that provides a valuable service to our community.

Just like any place of employment, not everyone employed is perfect.

I am thankful for my job, especially in these hard economic times. How many employers would let you off work during your probationary period to take care of your child at Children's Hospital, or pass you through to have completed your 90 days when you seriousely injured yourself and had to have surgery three days before your 90 day probationary period was up?
How many employers would have held that position for you? Not many, I can tell you that.

I am a Mercy Partner and I am VERY proud to be one.

becca_the_blogger:

"so community driven", "awesome", "who would be stupid enough"

Did you even make it through high school English?

Like cool dude! Are you about 17 years old?

I have no problem with whitewater or stoughton, in fact i love both, whitewater in particular I lived there for my college years. I was simply using it as a referance point as to the size and type of community janesville may be if GM had never set up camp here. Dont assume that i dont like either because i referenced them. Neither is a stinkhole like you suggested.

I still believe the hospital will be built. According to other sources, the money was going to be borrowed at 5% and it's now 9%. Makes sense to wait. The cost for the Madison St. Mary's addition was paid for from cash reserves from THAT HOSPITAL. (not from the "nuns in St. Louis.") See, when CEOs aren't paid multi-millions of dollars in compensation, cash reserves are easier to be built up.

GM in and of itself doesn't figure in too much, in my opinion. Didn't they (GM) completely pull out of Dean and go to MercyCare HMO a couple years ago? So it would seem to be a non-issue. However, health care nation wide IS hurting because of the loss of insurance benefits, resulting in much more charity care. It's much bigger than "just" GM.

Keep your fingers crossed for a St. Mary's Janesville hospital. Whether it's 2010 or 2011 or 2012, it's still going to be a great addition to the community. Choice is a great thing!!!

In the spirit of transparency, I do work for St. Marys, and do have Dean insurance. However, I used to work for the "other place," and always say, "I drive by 3 hospitals on my way to work for a reason!"

Miltonalum...What is your problem with Whitewater and Stoughton. Whitewater is a fine university town and a fine lake community as well. I am not too familiar with Stoughton but I don't think it's the stinkhole you make it sound like. GM is gone. Get over it. Janesville will survive without GM. Move along. Get over yourself.

Nice way to be transparent. Is it obvious you work for Mercy? Why don't you get some tact, intelligence and skill? Maybe take a course in public perception?

I doubt it will open in 2011....if ever. You have to think about all of the unemployed people in this area....which means, NO INSURANCE. To a new hospital this means MONEY PIT. Too many uninsured patients who are unable to pay their bills. It's not rocket science. As far as who likes Mercy and who doesnt.......take 100 people to any restaurant. How many will report being happy and how many will report the opposite? It is life in general. For the comment about doctors killing patients.....I encourage you to read up on any hospital within the US. Mercy is above the average for ALL US hospitals.

So do the nurses at Dean / St. Mary's.

You're all good.

I am an employee of Mercy and a recent patient. I had excellent care during my diagnostic testing my surgery and my recovery. I will be back to work soon and I promise to continue with my high standards of care for all of my patients.

The competition from Walgreens was a burden Dean couldn't bare...LOL
On a serious note, work is needed now to keep our local economy going. Too bad Dean won't reconsider the scheduling of building a hospital. The work involved building the facility would create a ton of jobs needed today.

To get good care I would drive 30 miles or more.

It is about a hospital GM is gone get on with life. It will be built and I am truly happy as to those that favor mercy so be it alot of us don't and their costs are high and don't have insurance and see where you get. whupash I do agree with your comments as some others in here. Mercy is a good hospital to some but not to me. I know workers that go elsewhere and yes most of their employees are great. I just perfer somewhere else and am glad there will be an option...... it is about the money right now and it will be built.

Well, it took a major recession for them to publicly admit it, but Dean-St. Mary's has finally stated what anyone with an ounce of knowledge about healthcare and/or finance knew all along: This project is not viable at the current time. It MAYBE had a chance if GM was still in town, but the economics of the project were always a little iffy, especially since Dean-St. Marys entered into the agreement with Edgerton. Why build a hospital 10 minutes from your affiliate?

I wonder how Deancare will absorb the cut-rate business they bought in anticipation of the new facility and how those folks newly-enrolled will feel if they have to drive 30 miles for care?

How about letting the people with the money to invest...make the determination of whether or not the risk / benefit of succeeding is worth it. Don't you think they may have studied the situation a little more in depth than most of you?

The world is full of people willing to tell others what they should do with their money.

GM is directly related to this. thousands of jobs lost impact what happens in a community bud.

GM is singlehandedly the reason Janesville is what it is, Without GM Janesville would be another whitewater or another Stoughton, a Gas stop between rockford and madison.

This hospital will be built but it's unreasonable to go ahead at a time when the country's financial/credit markets are such a mess. The worst thing to do is to go ahead at this point and land up having to stop if the market tanks more; then you're left with a hole in the ground or a partially built structure. Having a little forethought and caution will ensure this ends up being the success many Janesville residents expect it will be. The decision to delay the start of the project is a function of the market, not Dean backing out on Janesville.

Just to clarify i am neither for nor against Deans coming to Janesville, I work for a healthcare supply company so it would only give me more work, which is good. Mercy is a fine hospital, They could offer free healthcare and someone would complain about it, you cant please anyone.
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that said, the logistics of bringing another Large hospital to a town with a shrinking population combined with this economy is a no brainer. Dean is established with its clinic
(By the way Mercy owns the land Riverview is on) The time is not now for another hospital in Janesville.

Becca the blogger-
Mercy is not a community hospital, so I'm not sure what you are talking about. Having competition in healthcare would be a wonderful thing in Janesville. I am very sad to hear this news, as I was looking forward to staying close to home for my healthcare needs. I guess I will have to keep up my commute.

-Quote- "How sad if there were only one type of restaurant, one church, one grocery store, etc that we could go to. " -Quote-
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Its a little different, It doesnt cost $140 million to build a Red lobster. Especially in a town that just lost its largest employer.

This delay is unfortunate but understandable given the current economy. Janesville St. Mary's will be a great option for medical care for anyone who does not have Mercy Care. The community supports the idea of a second hospital and will welcome the new facility when the timing is better. We just have to be patient.

How unfortunate to delay building the new hospital. This could have brought in a lot of jobs for this area, which is something we need right now. Also, competition is a good thing. People need choices for healthcare, as well as many other type of businesses. How sad if there were only one type of restaurant, one church, one grocery store, etc that we could go to. What a boring place this would be.

Whoever has trouble understanding this sign...$...please raise your hand.

Because this ($) is what it's all about.

This is more about the national credit market, which is a walking disaster zone right now, than it is about Janesville.
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becca_the_blogger, if you're a Dean physician it makes financial sense to want to sever your dependence on a competitor. I still think SSM will proceed with this project but no, I wouldn't be surprised if they come up with a more cautious phased or reduced plan. But a hospital also needs to be a certain minimum size and there's hardly a need for another full-size clinic, not as new as Riverview is.

What are they doing with the New president of St.Mary's Janesville? She was new to the community and was to oversee construction.

Not everyone has MercyCare or insurance for Mercy Health System. Not everyone cares for Mercy Health System or Mercy Hospital. Why should those people have to go to Madison to the hospital? I don't see a problem with a little competition for Mercy in Janesville. In fact, I think it would be good for Mercy.

This is slightly off-topic, but people who use CAPITAL LETTERS at different points in their posts, are generally viewed on the internet as wingnuts. Learn to use the tubes :) I try to ignore them, but it gets difficult. On topic I never saw the reason for the new hospital. I expect Janesville to be a Madison suburb sorta, with anyone with a serious need will be in Madison.

For all of you who have posted that this was a stupid idea and Why build another hospital when we already have one! Do any of you realize that there are people who work and live here in Janesville and that Mercy Hospital/Clinic/doctors are NOT a provider for there Insurance and that the only place we can go is Dean St Mary's. I was excited about this and couldn't wait for the new hospital and be able to get the top quality care close to home that we have come to know.

I would think they were counting on the GM retirees medical benefits more than the current GM workers. And now with the retirees benefits being changed, that causes the hospital to reconsider.

Good for the for site,but do "ALL" people involved in this town have the same,let's wait before we commit to spending millions of dollars on things,NOT THE CITY OF JANESBURG ,SPEND SPEND SPEND,on crap we don't need,or can't afford right now! Send these spend crazy people back to Madison,or better yet,get-em out of our state all together!

Well finally Dean is thinking straight! What in the world would they want to build a hospital in Janesville for when we have one already...and a good one at that. The care is outstanding and Mercy is so community driven. Their employees are awesome too...always giving back to the community! Who would be stupid enough to support another hospital when we have a great one right now.

Actually, yes, this hospital has been in development for years, long before GM announced the closing of anything, It just happens that they announced the plans around the same time GM did.

miltonalum - You can't tell me that Dean was not aware when they chose that site and made plans to build that GM was closing. It was all over the media. They had to know. They are just waiting like everybody else is to spend money.

Why would they open the new hospital now anyway? I think that miltonalum is correct. I would wait and see if the economy recovers before I would commit to such a project because Jville may be on the ropes.

This is a PR move to delay what I heard through the hospital grapevine that without GM in janesville Dean is scaling back and potentially eliminating the new hospital, this buys them some time but mark my word Dean will not be opening a Janesville hospital unless something drastic happens with the GM plant, if they do it will be a dramatically scaled back plan, something similar to the riverview clinic for the other side of town.