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32 | I NSIGH T • A p r i l 2 0 1 6 w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m At Boldt, we're out to deliver those things important to your construction project: budget savings, responsive production schedules, better decision-making and a positive, more collaborative customer experience. In short, we're out to deliver value. 920-739-6321 | boldt.com Challenging convention to deliver results. HEALTH C ARE the river — locations that made sense when the hospitals were built, before automobile travel had become standard. "Time is such a huge factor in saving lives, and if you can find locations that would be much easier to get to, it could help the medical community serve them much more quickly," Seifert says. edaCare could possibly continue to keep medical offices or the emergency rooms operating at one or both of the current hospital campuses, Gruner says. e 107-year-old edaCare Regional Medical Center - Neenah may be difficult to update in certain ways but may have potential in others, he says. Most of the campus is currently nonprofit, and changing the use, such as senior apartment housing, would have implications for the community's tax base. "It's guaranteed we're going to have a lot of unused space, and we'll have to figure out how that space can best be used or repurposed," Gruner says. at's why edaCare plans on taking a couple of years to discuss all the options, says Gruner, who expects the entire process to take four to five years, including two to three years of discussions, prep work and design, and if the regional hospital is approved, another two years to build. While initially taken aback by the proposal, Neenah Mayor Dean Kaufert has since had discussions with Gruner and feels reassured that a consolidation is not on the fast track. "We'd like to be part of the process," Kaufert says. "We'd like to help them identify sites within the city that we could package, or help them stay within the city limits of Neenah, closer to the highway, if that's something that has to be." But eda Clark has been an integral part of the city of Neenah for more than 100 years, and the economic impact of losing the 1,052 employees traveling through downtown Neenah each day is a concern. Kaufert says the idea of repurposing the hospital or keeping portions of it open would assuage some of the impact. "I do understand the hospital is probably outdated," Kaufert says. "It's probably a matter of efficiencies, and being able to run one large hospital is probably less expensive than running two hospitals." Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna also says he understands what edaCare is trying to do in terms of staying competitive, modernizing facilities and at the same time lowering overhead costs. "ey're not going away," Hanna says. "It's not like they're closing. In fact, depending on the route that they choose, I think it has the potential to actually expand their reach, in terms of how far they draw from." Kathi Seifert