Hospital system making historical investment to its infrastructure

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

April 20, 2026

GREEN BAY – As part of an historic capital investment of $270 million in its Green Bay hospitals, Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) is investing $17.2 million to enhance care for critically ill infants at HSHS St. Vincent Children’s Hospital.

The hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) – which provides around-the-clock care for babies born prematurely, with low birthweights, congenital conditions or unexpected complications during delivery – will undergo a complete renovation under the newly announced plan. 

Bob Erickson – president and CEO, HSHS Wisconsin Market – said the NICU at St. Vincent Children’s Hospital is staffed by “some of the region’s most experienced” neonatologists, neonatal nurse practitioners, nurses and clinical teams.

“This project enhances the physical environment where exceptional care is already delivered, providing our most fragile patients and the families who love them with the comfort, space and privacy they need during some of the most difficult moments of their lives,” he said.

More privacy, increased need

Amy Bardon, director of nursing at St. Vincent Children’s Hospital, said HSHS is collaborating with its skilled teams – including caregivers – to design more private spaces for families. 

“Our current NICU has been in place for many years and is the longest-standing (NICU) in Green Bay,” she said. “Right now, we operate in pods, but we’re transitioning to private and semi-private patient rooms.”

Bardon said this will allow the hospital’s smallest patients to be in quieter, more private environments with their families and caregivers – “an approach that supports healing.”

“Overall, the new space is designed to better support our smallest patients and their families during a very vulnerable time,” she said.

Bardon said the hospital’s current NICU pods each accommodate four babies, with a total of 24 beds that meet current needs.

The unit, she said, can also flex to care for more infants when necessary, thanks to the support of the broader children’s hospital.

That’s important, Bardon said, since more babies in the U.S. are requiring NICU care.

According to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly 10% of infants were admitted to a NICU in the United States in 2023 – that’s a 13% increase from admissions in 2016.

“Though the number of babies needing NICU services has remained relatively steady, the complexity of care has increased across populations, including maternal health,” she said. “These factors impact pregnancy and childbirth, contributing to premature births and more complex needs in newborns. As a result, prematurity, congenital abnormalities and other complex medical conditions continue to drive demand for neonatal intensive care.”

Multi-phased project

Bardon said the NICU renovation will include optimized clinical workspaces, allowing caregivers to maintain the highest level of care while giving families the space they need to stay close to their newborns.

The existing NICU footprint is expected to change somewhat with the renovations, though Bardon said the exact extent has not yet been determined.

“As the plans develop, we’ll have an idea of how much larger that space becomes,” she said. “The goal is really to accommodate the demand of our NICU service while maintaining optimal flexibility.”

Bardon said even though the NICU space will get a bit bigger, it doesn’t necessarily mean the staff will be increasing.

“But we are always looking to expand the expertise in our NICU, and I am always looking for talented individuals who would love to be part of this extraordinary team,” she said. 

Bardon said the renovation is a natural progression for the future of St. Vincent Children’s Hospital – located within St. Vincent Hospital, 835 S. Van Buren St. in Green Bay – and underscores the hospital’s commitment to caring for children in the region, even the littlest ones.

Infants born at St. Vincent who require critical care, she said, have immediate access to the NICU’s specialized staff and facilities.

As a Level III NICU, Bardon said St. Vincent Children’s Hospital also provides telemedicine support to rural hospitals, offering on-demand expertise and facilitating patient transfers when needed.

“St. Vincent Children’s Hospital and the planned NICU renovation meet a critical community need,” she said.

Construction of the new NICU, Bardon said, is expected to begin this fall and is anticipated to be completed around fall 2027. 

She said the project will be completed in multiple phases to ensure that high-quality patient care and experiences continue uninterrupted throughout construction.

“We’re fortunate that this multi-phase project allows us to continue NICU care without interruption,” she said. “Our current space will be repurposed for support functions – like storage and supplies, improving workflow efficiency – while areas that currently serve those roles will become patient care rooms. Thanks to this approach and the project’s rapid timeline, we’re able to move forward without disrupting patient care.”

Other HSHS projects underway

John Wagner – chief operating officer for the HSHS Wisconsin Market – said the NICU renovation at St. Vincent Children’s Hospital was announced roughly one year after HSHS unveiled its historic $270 million strategic capital investment to revitalize St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center and St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay – featured by The Business News in its March 24, 2025 issue.

On the St. Mary’s campus, Wagner said, there’s been a tremendous amount of work that has occurred already. 

“The majority of that project includes building a new in-patient tower that will replace all of our existing in-patient beds, as well as increasing our intensive care capacity on that campus,” he said. “We have eight ICU beds today, and we will be going up to 36 ICU beds.”

Wagner said the tower will also create new heart and vascular surgical and procedural rooms, as well as a new main entrance to the hospital.

“There was a nursing home that was part of that project that has since been demolished, and there is some internal work within the building that’s occurring for additional demolition that will occur later this summer and fall,” he said.

Wagner said the St. Mary’s project is expected to continue for roughly two and a half more years.

“So, we’re probably looking at completion at the end of calendar year 2028,” he said.

Wagner said the renovations to the NICU at St. Vincent’s have been a top priority for the strategic capital investment, building on work already completed at the hospital.

“We’ve done a lot of work with our children’s hospital over the last two years,” he said. “The in-patient area and the PICU – the pediatric intensive care unit – have all seen updates. Our labor and delivery unit has also seen some updates over the years. So, the NICU was the next natural progression of that modernization within our children’s hospital.”

To prevent disruption to current care, Wagner said both the NICU and St. Mary’s projects are being executed in phases.

“The demand for our services throughout the region of Wisconsin has been very high,” he said. “So, these plans were designed in a way that we would not have to limit or decrease our services.”

By demolishing non-clinical areas first, Wagner said St. Mary’s was able to construct the new tower without reducing services, with all patient care eventually moving into the new space.

“Similarly, with the NICU, the first construction phase will create the new private and semi-private rooms in space that is outside of the NICU footprint today,” he said. “Today, that space is offices and some other outpatient clinical space that will get relocated. Then we can build the new NICU rooms, and once those are completed, we can have all of the patients in those rooms and then remodel the current, existing NICU footprint for some of the support services needed.”

Wagner said both projects position HSHS to meet current and future medical care needs, representing a natural progression of investments to modernize areas of the hospital.

“It brought us to an opportunity where we could take an historical investment and accomplish a bunch of different goals,” he said.

To learn more, visit hshs.org.