Answers to Questions About the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative

The Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative is an independently governed, locally rooted non-profit organization committed to making high-quality healthcare accessible and affordable in the Chippewa Valley. Focused on patient-centered care, prevention, and education, the Cooperative strives to make a lasting, positive impact on the Chippewa Valley’s health for generations to come.

With the goal of transforming the healthcare landscape in the Chippewa Valley and ensuring the local community is not solely dependent on hospital and healthcare services owned by and accountable to organizations outside our region, the Cooperative was formed just six weeks after HSHS announced it was leaving the region. We knew we couldn’t wait to see what would happen to plan for the future and avoid the devasting experience other regions have had after losing so many primary care services and hospital beds.

#1. The Chippewa Valley simply doesn’t have enough emergency room capacity or hospital beds to serve the region. While the other hospitals in our community have adjusted to handle more patients, they are at capacity and don’t have all of the local resources to serve the need.

• • Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s had more than 22,000 Emergency Room Visits
  • Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s averaged 125 hospitalized patients daily
  • Sacred Heart was planning for approximately 900 births in 2024

#2. Many community patients throughout the greater Chippewa Valley region now have to travel great distances to get the healthcare services they need, as the other health care systems can’t accommodate the increase in patients closing HSHS hospitals and clinics created.

#3. We think it’s very important that the great community gets an independent community hospital that is owned and governed by the people of the Chippewa Valley, so that decisions about services and capacity are made here, not by management teams headquartered in other parts of the state or country. The Cooperative’s membership will choose the the board of directors who must be from the 18-county membership region of the great Chippewa Valley.

#4. The Cooperative is committed to making high-quality healthcare both accessible and affordable for the people of the Chippewa Valley region.

Yes. The Cooperative’s new full-service 140,000-square-foot state-of-the-art hospital will be a flexible facility including 48 hospital beds, with a 12-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU), an Emergency Department, Labor & Delivery, Medical-Surgical services, critical care units, a comprehensive Cancer Center, and comprehensive diagnostic services, including laboratory, radiology, and cardiology services. The new hospital will also have a comprehensive therapy unit to offer physical, occupational, and speech therapies. You can read more about the planned hospital here.

The Cooperative evaluated many different locations throughout Eau Claire and Chippewa Counties for the new hospital, ultimately choosing a 20-acre parcel on the Highway 53 North-South corridor with convenient access to Interstate 94 and East-West County Highways 29 and 12.

We based this decision on detailed traffic flow modeling, demographics, and projected growth patterns for the area. Importantly, this location will make emergency services easily accessible from the entire region.

You can see the map of the location here.

• 144,000 Square Feet, Full Service
• 410 Employees + Medical Staff
• 48 hospital beds
• 12-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
• Emergency Department
• Labor & Delivery
• Medical-Surgical Services
• Radiology
• Cardiology
• Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Comprehensive Diagnostic Services
• Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy

The Cooperative has signed an LOI with HSHS to purchase the St. Joseph’s hospital facility and reopen it while we build the new, larger, full-service hospital. We have until early April to conduct thorough due diligence to ensure that reopening the hospital is financially possible. While we know there is substantial deferred maintenance in the building, we are hopeful that we’ll be able to reopen the hospital as early as Fall 2025 so that we can start taking care of Chippewa Valley patients as fast as possible. You can read the announcement here.

The new independent hospital will employ over 410 full-time employees, not including medical staff. The medical staff will include qualified and accredited physicians from throughout the greater Chippewa Valley.

An independent hospital is a healthcare facility that operates without being part of a larger hospital system, healthcare network, or corporate ownership. Independent hospitals are typically self-governed and managed by local boards, who make decisions prioritizing the needs of the local community. There are over 1,500 independent hospitals in the United States.

The physicians in the OakLeaf Medical Network have already pledged their support for the new hospital, and many have already joined the cooperative as physician members, showing their intention to seek admitting privileges at the new hospital when we’re open. One of the reasons we are so confident about building the new hospital is because of the excellent independent physicians throughout the OakLeaf Medical Network. Any medical professional licensed to practice in Wisconsin can apply to be a professional member of the Cooperative.

A hospital is not just a building, it’s also the physicians, providers, and of course the community. We are in an extraordinary position where we already have the potential medical staff here ready to practice in the new community hospital.

Yes! Your donation will help us realize our goals of closing the gaps in healthcare throughout the greater Chippewa Valley so our region can thrive. You can donate by mail or online here.

Yes. The Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative is a nonprofit 501c3 charitable organization, and contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. The Cooperative’s tax identification number is 99-1970392.

We will confirm your gift with a letter documenting your donation.

After significant research and evaluation, we determined that the cooperative structure provides the most flexibility and ensures that the community benefits from the organization and has governance of the organization so that decisions for our community are made by people in our community, not by administrators outside of the region.

By the way, Wisconsin is a leading cooperative business state, with over 850 cooperative businesses across a wide variety of industries owned by over 2.9 million Wisconsin residents.

A cooperative is a business that is owned and democratically governed by its members, who also use its services, which are designed to meet a common need. Members are instrumental to its existence and its ability to serve the community. Any resident of the 18-county Chippewa Valley region 18 years or older can become a community member.

Any accredited physician or medical professional licensed to practice in Wisconsin can become a medical professional member.

No. The Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative will serve the entire community. Patients who are not “Community Members” will, by default, become “Patient Members,” but will not have voting rights that Community Members have.

A formation board made of “Organizers” who develop corporate structure, member classes and the bylaws that will govern the Cooperative, while it also considers different operational plans. Once those are in place, the board of directors will be elected. This process generally takes up to eight-to-twelve months, although the formation board is already moving fast to put the required elements in place. Operational planning will be happening during this time.

We announced the formation board now because we felt it was important to let the community know that we’re doing this and moving quickly. We believe this is the right thing to do for the community.

The Organizers for the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative are seven local business and community leaders with a deep and wide range of experience and expertise who have volunteered their time to form the Cooperative because they believe so strongly that the HSHS decision could have a devasting impact on our region, and they’re willing to move quickly now to start addressing access to affordable healthcare.

The Organizers are:

Patti Darley, Lori Geissler, Peter Hoeft, Mickey Judkins, Bob Krause, Thomas Larson, and Eric Rygg.

Any resident 18 years or older in the Chippewa Valley region can become a voting community member of the Cooperative for a $25 fee. You can sign up here.

Any accredited medical professional licensed to practice in the state of Wisconsin can become a voting medical professional member for a $100 fee. You can sign up here.

Any patient of Cooperative services becomes a non-voting patient member of the Cooperative.

An independent physician is a doctor who owns their own medical practice and has key decision-making rights for the practice. Importantly, independent physicians have the freedom to meet their patients’ needs individually, and can work with multiple health systems and hospitals, offer all treatment choices, and refer patients anywhere necessary to receive the best care possible. Independent physicians are generally able to provide primary care services for up to 30% less than healthcare systems.

The Cooperative anticipates working with independent physicians throughout the region, including OakLeaf Medical Network, to ensure the Chippewa Valley community has community-governed services, programs, and facilities.