Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative looking to open non-profit healthcare collective
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – A community hospital could be coming to the Chippewa Valley. This is in response to the healthcare shutdown experienced in the region since late March.
HSHS Sacred Heart in Eau Claire and St. Josephs in Chippewa Falls closed their doors on March 22nd. Beforehand, the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative was formed in late February. With the intention of providing a new healthcare option for those in the Chippewa Valley. The new facility is said to be a non-profit hospital with an expected capacity of sixty to seventy beds and an emergency room unit.
The cooperative is looking to provide services ranging from cancer care, cardiology, surgery, lab work, labor and delivery among others. It also says it has more than a hundred physicians with Oakleaf Medical Network committed to work at the hospital. Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative Lead Advisor, Mike Sanders, explains, “We’ve done a lot of planning work, but there is still a lot to go in terms of detail design, fundraising, financing, community engagement.”
Sanders says the cooperative’s community hospital will have a lower overhead structure compared to other systems. He says it’s to ensure services are cost-effective while addressing the concerns businesses have about healthcare costs with the HSHS closures.
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