UW Health’s seven-story Eastpark Medical Center, under construction for more than two years in the American Center Business Park on Madison’s Far East Side, will open for patients this month.
The $465 million clinic, much larger than other UW Health clinics, will focus on cancer treatments and women’s specialty care but offer many other services, preventing patients from needing to travel to multiple locations as often as they do now, said Dr. Peter Newcomer, UW Health’s chief operating officer.
“If you’re getting radiation treatment and need to see a cardiologist the same day, and potentially get an echocardiogram, you can do that all in one building now,” Newcomer said.
UW Health’s Eastpark Medical Center, at 4621 Eastpark Blvd. on Madison's Far East Side, will open Oct. 28. UW Health is looking at buying more land to expand its 80-acre campus in the area, which includes an 84-bed hospital for which work on an addition will start by November.
The clinic, to open for patients Oct. 28, will help UW Health meet increasing Madison-area demand for medical care and attract patients from other parts of Wisconsin and other states for services such as proton therapy and targeted treatments for cancer, he said.
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“The convenient location and enhanced care coordination are making the highest quality patient care accessible to patients throughout Wisconsin and beyond,” Dr. Alan Kaplan, UW Health CEO, said in a statement.
Proton therapy, an expensive but precise type of radiation therapy used for some cancers, is currently not available in Wisconsin. The closest of 45 U.S. centers that provide it are Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and Northwestern University near Chicago.
UW Health’s new Eastpark Medical Center includes an 824-space parking structure with more than 2,000 solar panels on top.
Froedtert Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, together announced plans for proton therapy in May 2022, the same time UW Health did. Froedtert’s proton therapy is expected to start next summer, while UW Health’s will be available, at the Eastpark clinic, in early 2026, officials said.
UW Health’s $60 million proton therapy project will include new technology by Middleton-based Leo Cancer Care. Patients will sit in a special chair that shifts around a radiation beam instead of lying down while a massive contraption rotates around them on a gantry, as is the case at most proton therapy centers.
The Eastpark facility will offer other cancer services, such as numerous clinical trials and a 73-chair infusion center, where patients can get chemotherapy and other treatments in a communal, semi-private or private setting.
Analyzers are stored in a lab at UW Health's new Eastpark Medical Center.
Specialty care for women will include treatments for incontinence, pelvic floor disorders, gynecologic cancer and sexual health concerns.
Other specialties at Eastpark will be allergy, dermatology, neurology, pain management and physical and occupational therapy. The clinic will have UW Health’s first drive-up pharmacy.
With more than 600 clinical and non-clinical staff, Eastpark will free up space at UW Hospital and UW clinics at 1 S. Park St. and nearby Meriter Hospital, Newcomer said. Such spaces likely will be used to expand other clinics and the hospital’s food service, he said.
Eastpark, which is on a local route extension of Madison’s new bus rapid transit line, is on the same campus as UW Health’s East Madison Hospital, which opened in 2015, east of Interstate 39-90-94 and north of Highway 151.
Construction is expected to start by next month on a $133 million, one-story addition to the hospital, one of several other UW Health facility projects.
The addition will add six operating rooms to the 84-bed hospital’s 14 ORs. It will also add 14 inpatient beds and 60 bays for post-surgery care, along with increasing the 20-bed ER to a capacity of 48 patients.
Last month, work began on a $177 million, seven-story addition to UW Hospital on the west end of the UW-Madison campus. The addition is near the emergency room, between the hospital and the UW Medical Foundation Centennial Building southwest of the hospital.
The project will add 48 beds to UW Hospital’s 505 beds and add 29 emergency department rooms, giving the hospital a total of 92 ER bays.
Both hospital additions are expected to be done by 2026.
UW Health's Eastpark Medical Center opens for some patients Oct. 28 and for others in November.
Work on a $122 million, four-story clinic, just south of UW Health’s Digestive Health Center off University Avenue near Whitney Way, is expected to start next spring.
UW Health, UnityPoint Health-Meriter and Lifepoint Health, which have a 50-bed rehabilitation hospital next to UW’s East Madison Hospital, plan to open a second one in Fitchburg by 2026. The 40-bed rehab hospital will be at the southwest corner of Lacy Road and Highway 14.
Together, all of the projects represent an investment of more than $900 million and an expansion of UW Health’s facility footprint by nearly 1 million square feet.
