PLATTEVILLE, Wis. — A regional health care provider is planning a multi-million dollar expansion at its Platteville campus.
Southwest Health this week announced plans to construct a new outpatient building near its Platteville hospital. The building is expected to house several services currently offered at the hospital to free up space in the hospital for a planned internal remodel.
“We’ve been blessed with some pretty aggressive growth, and the result is that we’re simply out of space at the hospital,” said Southwest Health Chief Ancillary Services Officer Corey Schmidt. “Moving some of those services (to the new building) clears up a ton of that space for other uses.”
Preliminary costs for the entire project range from $20 million to $25 million. The design of the outpatient building is not yet finalized, but early estimates put it at roughly 20,000 square feet.
The new outpatient building on Eastside Road will hold Southwest Health Behavioral Services, the eye center and several other services currently housed in the main hospital. The move is expected to take place in 2026 once the building is complete.
Southwest Health CEO Dan Rohrbach said the move will be particularly beneficial for the behavioral services department, which offers outpatient mental health care.
Demand for such services has surged in recent years, Rohrbach said, and the department is “maxed out” in its current space.
“Mental health is a growing need,” he said. “We see that here locally, but it’s true nationwide. If we want to continue to offer additional services to the community, we have to expand that space, which causes kind of a domino effect.”
Rohrbach added that no service disruptions are expected during construction.
After the various services move to the new building, the space left behind in the hospital will be retrofitted to build three additional operating rooms and other useful spaces. That will bring the hospital to seven operating rooms.
“We see this as a continuation of our natural growth,” Rohrbach said. “We expect to see staffing grow as we work to provide more services for the community.”
Internal remodeling of the hospital space is expected to take an additional year and will be completed in 2027, Rohrbach said. As the hospital grows to fill that space, officials expect to hire more staff.
Southwest Health employs over 600 people across its hospital and various satellite clinics throughout southwest Wisconsin.
Platteville Regional Chamber Executive Director Wayne Wodarz applauded the news of the impending expansion, noting that the hospital’s growth in the past 10 years is nothing short of “amazing.”
“It just shows that we’re in an area that has the demand and the need for those additional services,” Wodarz said. “They’re getting their message out there, and it’s really helped people become aware of everything they have to offer.”
The new building will be constructed on land adjacent to the hospital and will be accessed from the same parking lot. The project is separate from ongoing development of 27 acres near the hospital that Southwest Health plans to sell to area businesses.
Updates on the project and future Southwest Health service expansions will be posted online at southwesthealth.org.