Star Tribune
2 hospitals and 19 clinics will close in western Wisconsin, worrying residents and local officials
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Two hospitals and nearly 20 clinics will close within months in western Wisconsin, leaving residents and local officials worried about how the closures will impact local health care services.
Hospital Sisters Health System and Prevea Health announced Monday that HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls will permanently close by April 21.
All 19 Prevea Health clinics in western Wisconsin will also close their doors, with most of them as well as a treatment center that HSHS operates in Chippewa Falls set to close by April 21, said Prevea Health spokesperson Angela Deja.
The closures will affect 1,082 HSHS and 325 Prevea employees, according to a news release which said the closures will bring about the health care operators’ ”complete exit from the western Wisconsin region.”
HSHS and Prevea Health, a physician network that offers primary and specialty care, said they’ve begun a thorough and organized process to safely wind down services and shift patient care to other providers.
But Chippewa Falls resident Rick Flynn said he’s concerned that the remaining hospitals in Eau Claire are going to be overwhelmed trying to absorb all of the Chippewa Valley’s emergency services and day-to-day medical needs.
”I’m worried about those hospitals’ ability to handle so much. I’m worried about our fire department. People need an ambulance, but EMTs can’t get to them because they’re on a run to Eau Claire every five minutes. How’s that going to work?” Flynn told the La Crosse Tribune.
HSHS and Prevea said the closures were driven by long-running operational and financial stresses tied to the lingering impacts of the pandemic, inflation, workforce constraints and other industry-wide trends.
Chippewa Falls Mayor Greg Hoffman said he was disheartened when he learned of the closures from the news release. He said the health care operators never contacted his office about the impending closures.
”I understand that today the world is getting harder and harder with baby boomers aging and all that. But we’ve got to figure this out,” Hoffman said.
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This story and summary has been corrected to show that most of the 19 Prevea Health clinics will be closing by April 21, not by June 30.
Transforming the heart of both downtowns, which have much larger buildings than old warehouses, is going to take a lot more money, creativity and time. Josh Talberg, managing director at downtown Minneapolis brokerage JLL, said with no major apartment buildings on the drawing board in either downtown, the fleet of empty office buildings present a golden opportunity to create more housing and lead both cities in a new direction.
“You can can certainly see the fundamentals improving, and you can feel that vibrancy, and that’s ultimately the foundation that’s needed to get investors to reinvest in the city,” he said. “But it’s not as if these 18-wheelers can turn on a dime.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
