Marshfield Clinic Hopes to Demolish Plaza Hotel, Build New Hospital on Clairemont Avenue
In a move it said would improve patient care and reduce health care costs, Marshfield Clinic Health System announced Friday that it plans to build a hospital with an attached cancer care center near its Eau Claire campus on Eau Claire’s south side. Pending approval from the City of Eau Claire, ground will be broken for the hospital next spring at 1202 W. Clairemont Ave., the current site of the Plaza Hotel & Suites. Marshfield Clinic already owns the hotel, which will continue to operate through December before being demolished, according to a media release. The clinic announced that the cancer care center will open in the fall of 2017, which the hospital will tentatively open in 2018.
The hospital will be the fourth in the immediate Eau Claire area, joining HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital just a few blocks away, as well as Mayo Clinic Health System Eau Claire, and Oakleaf Surgical Hospital in Altoona.
“Data from the Wisconsin Hospital Association shows residents in Eau Claire and the Chippewa Valley face some of the highest health care costs in the state, and building a new hospital puts MCHS in a strong position to start to change that,” said Dr. Susan Turney, CEO of Marshfield Clinic Health System. “Our ‘Caring for the Chippewa Valley’ program makes us a truly integrated local health care system. This allows MCHS to maximize efficiencies and start reducing patient costs while providing even higher quality care and a great patient experience.”
According to the media release, Marsfield Clinic officials are “in the process of evaluating and determining the optimal size and scope for the new hospital and will share more information, including an anticipated construction budget, when available.” The new cancer care center “is expected to be staffed by the same doctors, nurses and other employees currently working at the Marshfield Clinic Cancer Care at Sacred Heart Hospital. The new facility will feature more patient privacy, expanded clinical services and all the programs now offered at the existing center.”
