First look inside new Children’s Wisconsin clinic in Appleton

APPLETON, Wis. (WBAY) - Children’s Wisconsin is just weeks away from opening a new clinic in the Fox Valley.

The facility will offer more than 20 specialties and eliminate or greatly reduce the need for families in Northeast Wisconsin to drive to the main campus in Milwaukee.

Kristyn Allen got a first look inside the clinic during live reports on Action 2 News This Morning.

”It is absolutely amazing. We have been talking about this for a long time, with that our community is invested in it. Our community has had outstanding conversations, and support from our donors as well,” Gail Ostrander, vice president of Northeast regional services, said.

The Appleton clinic, 2575 E. Evergreen Drive, is more than 50,000 square feet. Specialties that were offered at the Children’s site at ThedaCare in Neenah will move here, plus more specialties will be added, such as radiology, using the latest technology with the lowest dose of radiation possible. Previously, imaging procedures were outsourced, but now pediatric-trained technologists can do them right here.

“They know exactly how to approach a child. This is not a normal environment -- this is frightening for a child and traumatic. They can explain it in language a child can understand and give them choices along the way and make this as positive an experience as possible,” Ostrander said.

It’s also the only Children’s Wisconsin clinic to have stress test capabilities.

“The stress lab is really a great way to assess a patient’s heart and their lungs with respect to their congenital heart disease. We can offer them a treadmill stress test or bicycle stress test. It really helps counsel the family about how their heart and lungs are doing,” Ostrander explained.

“All those families, half a day driving down to Milwaukee, missing school, missing work, they’ll be able to get this care closer to home. This building has been designed for 50,000 visits a year,” Ostrander said.

The long-term vision is to add on to the facility and eventually be able to support up to 70,000 visits each year.

The clinic will start seeing patients on March 6.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the new Appleton clinic.

Copyright 2023 WBAY. All rights reserved.