Aspirus Stanley Hospital reminds community they're still here to help

STANLEY, Wis. (WEAU) - The hospital closures throughout the community devastated many. However, there is one hospital in Stanley that wants to give the reminder that even though they’re tiny, they’re also mighty.

They also want to let the community know they’re here to help.

Aspirus Stanley Hospital has seen many changes over the years, but like many, it was a shock to hear about Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s hospitals closing.

Regardless they’re still working hard to take care of their patients.

Steve Seiberling is a supervisor for the rehabilitation department at Aspirus Stanley Hospital.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes, it’s been a great opportunity to see how resilient this facility is at adapting to a lot of the changes in the healthcare market.” he said.

Even though Stanley is about 30 minutes from Eau Claire, they still have patients from the Chippewa Valley area, even more than before.

Anne Sadowska is the Chief Administraiton Officer for the Northwest division at Aspirus Health.

“So this hospital has been serving the east side of Chippewa County for many many years, just now at a larger capacity since the closures.” she said.

“It’s just been a great pleasure for us to be able to then reach out even further and offer these same services to a larger community to the west.” Steve said.

To those wondering about what services they offer, it’s not too different from a hospital in Eau Claire.

Like the emergency room.

“So we have definitely seen a direct impact to our Emergency Room and Urgent Care volume, it’s up just over 20% since the closures.” Anne said.

With a wait time ranging from “45 minutes to a few hours” Anne said.

It’s important to know though, they’re not a trauma center.

“So we don’t see the same types of urgent emergent cases like you would see at a level one trauma center.” Anne said.

They also are bringing some older services back to help more patients like

“Cardiac rehab and pulmonary rehab, we had that many many years ago.” Anne said.

Their efforts to keep up with the demand for the community lead to more staffing.

“As we just continue to provide high quality service, that compassionate care that we so pride ourselves on here in this facility.” Steve said.