The CEO of Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care has said Glendale, Wis.-based Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare is partly to blame for Aurora's troubled finances, according to a Business Journal report.
Aurora CEO Nick Turkal, MD, believes part of Aurora's problems are tied to Wheaton's 2006 decision to close St. Michael Hospital, a safety-net facility located in the North Side of Milwaukee. With that closure, Wheaton's St. Joseph Hospital remains one of two safety-net hospitals in the city.
Aurora's Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee is the other one, but it faces a bleak financial forecast. In 2011, it accrued $20 million in losses and Aurora has until the end of the year to decide whether to close or limit services at the center.
Mr. Turkal has sent a letter to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the city's health commissioner, saying Wheaton is working behind the scenes to escalate problems at Aurora.
"Maybe it is to deflect from the fact that they have actually been making tens of millions of dollars at St. Joseph, while Sinai has been losing tens of millions during the same period of years," Mr. Turkal's letter said, according to the report. "Maybe it is to deflect from the fact that they joined the long parade of systems that closed hospitals in Milwaukee when they did so with St. Michael. Maybe it is because they do not want elected and community officials to know that the increase in emergency room patients due to this closure was borne by Sinai as well as St. Joseph."
Wheaton officials were not available for comment at the time of the news report's publication.
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Aurora CEO Nick Turkal, MD, believes part of Aurora's problems are tied to Wheaton's 2006 decision to close St. Michael Hospital, a safety-net facility located in the North Side of Milwaukee. With that closure, Wheaton's St. Joseph Hospital remains one of two safety-net hospitals in the city.
Aurora's Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee is the other one, but it faces a bleak financial forecast. In 2011, it accrued $20 million in losses and Aurora has until the end of the year to decide whether to close or limit services at the center.
Mr. Turkal has sent a letter to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the city's health commissioner, saying Wheaton is working behind the scenes to escalate problems at Aurora.
"Maybe it is to deflect from the fact that they have actually been making tens of millions of dollars at St. Joseph, while Sinai has been losing tens of millions during the same period of years," Mr. Turkal's letter said, according to the report. "Maybe it is to deflect from the fact that they joined the long parade of systems that closed hospitals in Milwaukee when they did so with St. Michael. Maybe it is because they do not want elected and community officials to know that the increase in emergency room patients due to this closure was borne by Sinai as well as St. Joseph."
Wheaton officials were not available for comment at the time of the news report's publication.
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