SPRINGFIELD, Ill.— The Illinois-based hospital chain HSHS is closing its Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls hospitals in a “complete exit” from the western Wisconsin health-care market. The announcement was unexpected. Closing:
> HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital. In Eau Claire. 216 beds.
> HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital. In Chippewa Falls. 102 beds.
> Prevea Health. A physician network with primary and specialty care.
Fourteen-hundred employees will be laid off. These are about 1,100 at the hospitals and 300 with Prevea. What went wrong? The company cited financial stress from the CoVid pandemic, inflation, workforce constraints, local market challenges, and industry-wide trends. Unaffected are HPHP hospitals in Green Bay, Oconto Falls and Sheboyhgan. The company’s departure from western Wiscosin will leave Eau Claire with a Mayo hospital and clinics. These are within 15 miles of Chippewa Falls.
Verbatim
Damond Boatwright, HSHS chief executive. “We closely considered other options and sought strategic alternatives. After an agreement with a suitable partner did not work out, it was determined that exiting the market is the only feasible path forward.”
HSHS profile
HSHS, short for Hospital Sisters Health System, is a non-profit faith-based health system with 15 hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin. It dates to 1844 in Germany. In the United States it opened its first hospital in 1875 in Springfield, Illinois. It operates St. John’s College in Springfield, the oldest Catholic hospital-based nursing school in the United States.