Health care company says hospitals in Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls will close

Hospitals in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls will close, and a physician network in western Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley will permanently shut down, the health systems announced Monday.

Hospital Sisters Health System announced it will close HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls, while Prevea Health physician network will close its primary care and specialty operations in the region.

In the announcement, the Illinois-based health care system said the hospital closures are “part of a complete exit from the Western Wisconsin region.”

The closures impact approximately 1,082 HSHS and 325 Prevea employees and physicians.

The majority of the closures are expected to be complete on or before April 21. Prevea residency clinics will close on or before June 30.

According to the announcement, the decision came after “prolonged operational and financial stress related to lingering impacts of the pandemic, inflation, workforce constraints, local market challenges” and other industry-wide trends.  

“While HSHS and Prevea intended to create an integrated health delivery model in Western Wisconsin in 2015, our operations in the region have struggled for the past several years due to a mismatch in the supply of and demand for local health care services,” said Damond Boatwright, president and CEO of HSHS.

Boatwright said the organization considered other options. 

“After an agreement with a suitable partner did not work out, it was determined that exiting the market is the only feasible path forward,” he said.

St Joseph’s is the only hospital in Chippewa Falls. It has been in operation since 1885. It has 193 acute care beds, according to state data.

Two other hospitals operate in Eau Claire.

The announcement of the closings is the last sign of the struggle of rural health industry providers. Last week, Marshfield Clinic Health System confirmed it would furlough about 3 percent of its roughly 12,000-person workforce, or about 360 employees. 

The announcement comes less than two weeks after the company announced that a planned merger with Duluth-based Essentia Health would not move forward.

According to the American Hospital Association, 136 rural hospitals closed from 2010 to 2021 , with a record 19 closures in 2020 alone.

HSHS and Prevea said their locations outside of the Chippewa Valley region will continue to operate as usual.