St. Joseph’s hospital set to reopen in western Wisconsin city under new owner

St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls will officially reopen this fall under new ownership by a regional health cooperative.

Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative announced it had purchased the facility Tuesday. The group has been working to buy the hospital since December, while also moving forward with plans to build a new facility in the neighboring village of Lake Hallie.

St. Joseph’s, Sacred Heart hospital in Eau Claire and a network of regional clinics were closed abruptly in March 2024 by Hospital Sisters Health System, or HSHS. The rapid shutdown shocked the community and left hundreds of people scrambling to find new health care providers and new jobs. 

Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative said in a press release that some services will begin in the fall at the former St. Joseph’s facility, which has been renamed Chippewa Valley Cooperative Hospital. The facility won’t reach full capacity until summer of 2026.

Robert Krause, chair of the cooperative’s board of directors, said in the release that licensing and certifications for all services could not be completed until the group owned the building.

“Now that we have the keys, we are fast tracking that process with the other organizations which need to be involved,” Krause said in the statement.

The group will start by opening a cancer and infusion center and a wound care center at the facility, and it is working with Chippewa County to reopen the morgue this year.

By next summer, the cooperative hopes to operate a 30-bed hospital with a five-bed intensive care unit, including an emergency department and labor and delivery unit. The facility would employ more than 300 people, according to the release.

The cooperative said in the release that reopening the Chippewa Falls hospital will serve the community’s immediate needs while they work to build a more modern facility. The groundbreaking on the Lake Hallie hospital is planned for next spring, and the facility is expected to open by early 2028.

In May, the former HSHS Sacred Heart hospital was purchased by a fundraising foundation for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The foundation’s head said they are “considering a number of options” for the building and property.