Construction Update on Marshfield Medical Center-Neillsville's New Medical Campus; Public Informational Meeting February 12th

Monday, January 27th, 2020 -- 4:04 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director

-Construction at Marshfield Medical Center-Neillsville’s new campus on River Avenue outside of Neillsville is progressing nicely.

I spoke with Ryan Neville, Chief Administrative Officer, and he provided some background on how Memorial Medical Center became Marshfield Medical Center-Neillsville and began construction on this new facility.

“So, this journey started about three years ago when we knew we wanted to replace the existing building that was built in 1954 and recapitalize in Clark County a brand new hospital and clinic. And through that journey and working with our partners, and one of our key partners for providing care is Marshfield Clinic, and those conversations escalated to ‘this would be better if we did this together.’ Our mission, of course, is to bring the best possible care to our community and that’s especially true in a rural community. And we thought together we could do that better.”

“So, we affiliated with the Marshfield Clinic Health System and that occured in December of 2018 and, for the past 13 months, we’ve been working as one to transition our operations and our staff and work as one system to elevate the care in Clark County.”

Ryan then went into some detail on the project itself including the work that needed to be done to begin construction, the work complete so far and the next steps.

“We broke ground in August, which we were very excited about. It was a milestone and felt like a long time coming. We love our site. It’s over 50 acres of land, which allows us opportunity to expand as we continue to grow. A lot of land work as far as working with the DNR. There is a little bit of wetland on that that we had to avoid. And then also, really, leveling the land. Earth moving to make sure we have the building pad that we wanted. As of now, since August, we made great progress. The steel structure in the roof decking is to be completed by mid-March. In the in-patient wing, we’re already working on the interior work. Underground plumbing is being installed in the in-patient wing and the concrete floors are being poured and metal studs for interior walls will be poured as well.”

“We’re now, believe it or not, are starting to work on the interior of certain wings. So, we’re continuing to make progress. I’m thrilled to know that when we have our core building meetings that we’re on budget and on schedule. We’re still looking at a substantial completion date of February 5th of 2021 and our first patient in May of 2021. So, currently, as they’re building, our departments are preparing, selecting furniture, selecting equipment. They’re making sure that when we have the time to move in, we won’t miss a thing.”

“We’ve been impressed. The team, the crew out there, has been working really hard. There have been days where we’ve had close to 70 workers out there on a day. They’re working through the elements right now, but you can tell they’ve done this before.”

Coming up on February 12th at the Clark Cultural Art Center, or CART, here in Neillsville, a meeting will be held at 6pm for the public to hear the results of an Economic Impact Study done by West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. The results will show the impacts the new campus could have on our area. The public is invited to attend and Ryan explained the presentation in more detail.

“Christ Straight from Regional Planning has done a great job leading a community member group through what is called an Economic Impact Study regarding what will occur economically in Clark County, or at least Neillsville, once this campus is constructed. So, we’ll walk through the impact. I think some of the things that we’re seeing is housing and transportation and items that, as we provide more care and have more presence and patients aren’t leaving our community as much to receive care, how does that benefit our local economy and our local business leaders.”

“That meeting is open to the public. We’d love to share our findings. I’m very excited for this impact. So many towns our size lose a hospital and I’m just thrilled that our town is getting a brand new one. This is a great turning point for the economy in Neillsville.”

Again, that informational meeting regarding the economic impact of the new facility on the area will be held at the CART center here in Neillsville at 6pm and the public is invited to attend.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.