CV Health Cooperative Two Years Later — And Moving Forward

Two years ago, something extraordinary happened.

Just six weeks after HSHS announced it was closing Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s and walking away from more than 70,000 patients in our region, this community came together and formed the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative.

We didn’t wait.
We didn’t accept “that’s just the way it is.”
We got to work.

And what a difference two years makes.

In just the past year alone, together we have:

• • Closed on the purchase of the former St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls, a major milestone in restoring local hospital capacity
  • Secured agreement for land in Lake Hallie for our new, full-service hospital
  • Opened local Cancer Care Center to begin restoring critical oncology access in our region
  • Prepared to launch an Advanced Wound Care Center, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy, to meet another urgent community need
  • Continued the complex, behind-the-scenes licensing, certification, staffing, and operational work required to reopen Chippewa Falls as a full-service hospital

This is not easy work.

Reopening a hospital, and building a brand-new one for the future requires persistence, discipline, and belief. We are doing something that hasn’t been done before in our region: restoring hospital care through a community-owned model.

The Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative was officially formed on February 29, 2024, as a nonprofit, community-owned cooperative, governed locally and accountable to the people it serves. It was built to restore the 34%+ of healthcare access our region lost.

Today, we are not just an idea.

We are operational.
We are growing.
We are moving forward.

There is still important work ahead: fully reopening the Chippewa Falls hospital, continuing to expand services, and building our new, state-of-the-art hospital in Lake Hallie.

But on this second anniversary, we pause to recognize what this community has already accomplished.

This progress has happened because thousands of neighbors chose to step up.

If you believe healthcare decisions should be made locally…
If you believe our region deserves stable, high-quality hospital care…
If you want to be part of shaping the future of healthcare in the Chippewa Valley…

We invite you to become a member of the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative.

Membership gives you a voice. It strengthens this effort. And it demonstrates that our community is committed to building a sustainable, locally governed healthcare system for generations to come.

We are just getting started.