Former St. Joseph’s Hospital to reopen, acquired by Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (WEAU) - When HSHS removed itself from our region, the healthcare landscape was completely changed. Now, through the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative, one of the facilities is getting a new life.

“The need is there,” Mike Sanders, a lead adviser with the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative, said. “It’s undeniable.”

The halls of the former St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls remain empty but they won’t be for much longer.

“Can you see my goosebumps?” Dr. Erik Dickson, a physician and board member of the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative, asked. “It’s very surreal.”

The Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative announced it officially acquired St. Joseph’s hospital with plans to reopen the facility. The organization naming it the Chippewa Valley Cooperative Hospital.

“When the two HSHS hospitals closed, the region lost about 1/3 of the hospital capacity in the area,” Sanders said.

“The care gaps are so great right now. There’s people, my patients -- I work in primary care as well--that are ending up all over the place for care,” Dickson said. “Sometimes two and three hours away from home, which in my opinion isn’t really acceptable.”

Filling the void left by the closures of the hospitals is the priority. This fall, clinical services like wound care, specialty care services, a cancer and infusion center, and possibly the previous Chippewa County morgue will become available.

Then next summer, the cooperative hopes to open the hospital fully. This would include 30 beds with five intensive care units, a 24/7 emergency department, med-surg services, labor and delivery options and radiology.

“Having a facility in a town this size as well as the whole county is going to be extremely important for residents to be able to get quick, emergent care and also regular care as well,” Dickson said.

The reopening of the hospital will also have an economic boost, not only helping patients but also displaced healthcare workers.

“We’re going to bring back over 300 jobs to the community by next summer and even more when we open the new facility in Lake Hallie,” Sanders said. “So, we have to build a big organization from scratch. It’s very exciting and it’s very challenging at the same time.”

This is all just the beginning. The facility will not replace the community hospital planned to open in Lake Hallie in 2028. The Chippewa Valley Cooperative Hospital looks to help fill the gap in the meantime, all in an effort to stabilize healthcare in the Chippewa Valley once again.

“If we go back a year ago, we were facing a very steep uphill starting from zero,” Sanders said. “We’ve come a tremendous amount of the way and now we see the finish line.”

Next steps for the Chippewa Valley Cooperative Hospital include getting licensing, electronic medical records and equipment into place. We asked what the cooperative plans to do with the hospital after the Lake Hallie facility opens. Right now, that’s unclear.

“It’s very premature to have any predictions on what will happen with this facility,” Dickson said. “Maybe it will be repurposed for something else in medicine, I don’t know. Maybe we will need the beds because we’re so busy, it’s just impossible to say.”

Yet as the hospital moves forward, those with the cooperative shared excitement for future community involvement. The Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative is not yet hiring to fill roles. There is an opportunity to share interest in future employment though. You can do that HERE.