Making a difference
Quality Tank Solutions building new plant, bringing new jobs
October 12, 2026
RHINELANDER – Though he claims no credit for why the clinic was built, ENT & Allergy Associates and its newest otolaryngologist, Shane White, recently celebrated both the grand opening of a new Rhinelander location and White’s homecoming.
“I don’t personally claim credit for that building being built, but it wouldn’t shock me if that were a part of it,” he laughed. “I reached out to them four years ago when I was very early on in training…, and I said, ‘Hey, I’m from Rhinelander. I’m married to a girl from Rhinelander. I want to move back to Rhinelander.’”
Though he had a ways to go until he was officially licensed to practice, White said one thing he was certain of was he wanted to return to the home of the Hodag.
“Because they were traveling up [from Wausau] a few days a week, my conversation with [ENT & Allergy Associates] was…, ‘I don’t really want to live in Wausau, but if you guys are ever interested in having someone who lives in Rhinelander, holds down the fort up there and works full-time affiliated with your group, let me know,’” he said.
Though he doesn’t know exactly how that factored into ENT & Allergy Associates’ decision to build in Rhinelander, White said his contract negotiations began around the same time they began construction.
Now serving patients at the physician-built facility – located at 1933 Navajo St. – White said it’s both delighting and bewildering to care for people who helped raise him in the Northwoods city of roughly 8,000.
“If you want to call it a downside, which I don’t, patients want to make some small talk after clinic appointments, so staying on pace with my scheduled appointments can be a little tough if I see too many people who know me personally,” he said. “I have already seen many people who I know either personally – people who were my teachers who raised me. It’s been really, really cool to be on this side of things now.”
Narrow options, broad training
Born and raised in Rhinelander, White said after graduating high school, he knew he wanted to go into medicine and began taking steps to ensure he could practice in North Central Wisconsin.
“I honestly tailored my profession choice to the location,” he said. “Neurosurgery interested me a little bit, [but] I’m not quite the personality of a neurosurgeon…, [and] I realized I wouldn’t be able to do it in Rhinelander just because there wasn’t enough volume to support those types of specialists.”
Attending Bemidji State University in northern Minnesota for undergrad – where he received a scholarship to play basketball and study chemistry – White said he “decided fairly late” he wanted to attend medical school.
“There were a few classes I took that piqued my interest,” he said. “I shadowed an orthopedic surgeon [and decided] I’d like to be a doctor and probably a surgeon. So, I went into medical school fairly open to specialties, but I have always known since high school that I wanted to come back to Rhinelander.”
Despite being open to different specialties, White said he narrowed down his options and eventually called “the long-term ear, nose and throat doctor” in Rhinelander, Shishir N. Sheth.
“We had about a two-hour conversation about what that specialty looked like in Rhinelander, because any specialty you choose is going to look different in your environment,” White said. “If you’re an academic physician, for example – or, an emergency physician in Milwaukee looks very different from emergency medicine in Rhinelander. Everything that I was considering was with that in mind; what is this career going to look like in the Northwoods?”
Marrying his high school sweetheart, also from Rhinelander, in between his time in the classroom, White said he chose an ENT specialty and spent his first two years of medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin-Central Wisconsin Campus before transferring to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee to complete his training.
Then, he said, came his residency – which he completed in Lexington, Kentucky, after matching with the University of Kentucky.
“It’s beautiful, [but] I was not that excited about the location when I matched there,” he laughed. “I was excited about the training, and that’s why I ranked it [where I did].”
White said he ranked the University of Kentucky high on his match list because of its “great, broad training,” perfect for “a type of guy who wants to be in a small town area doing broad things.”
“Kentucky isn’t really known for training you into one niche [or] really unique ear surgery or approach to the skull base,” he said. “They train you well to do everything, and that’s the type of training I wanted. So, I spent five years there, loved my training and loved the location, but we’re really happy to be back home.”
Patient-centered care
As both large hospital systems and independent practices struggle to hire and retain talented physicians, ENT & Allergy Associates President David Edmondson said tapping the talents of local professionals is a strategy that has worked well for the physician-owned practice.
“Dr. Shane White… [is] part of the reason we built this [new clinic] – to make a location for [him] to have for the next 25-30 years of his career,” Edmondson said in a story published by The Business News in its Aug. 3 issue.
With both their families established in Rhinelander – “my parents are there, my wife’s parents are there, two of my siblings are there, [but] I have 10 siblings, so a big family percentage, and then grandparents” – White said he and his wife had plenty of motivation to return home with the opportunity at ENT & Allergy Associates in tow.
White said he discovered his love for his hometown in high school once he realized the region offered an array of both land- and water-based recreation opportunities unlike any other.
Even further, he said he didn’t know he wanted to come home until he left.
“I didn’t realize how unique it was until I went away to college, went to some different areas and realized that not everywhere are there lakes,” he laughed. “Up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, [there are] 10 lake options within 10 miles of you – so it [was] a combination of the land and the family draw.”
On the flipside of his coin, White said his practice is thriving with community members expressing gratitude for having another stable, local physician presence.
“The patients meeting with me are frequently referencing, unfortunately, how many physicians they [saw] who are no longer here,” he said. “But the physicians who have stuck around, they’re frequently referencing…, like Dr. Sheth [for] example – I’ve already seen at least 10 of his patients in my one month here who talk about the care he provided in the past – they’re hoping I’m their long-term provider for the future, and I am, too. I’m hoping to be here for 30-plus years.”
With the increase in specialty and independent care practices opening in North Central Wisconsin – previously reported on by The Business News in the aforementioned August issue – White said he’s honored to be entrusted with the locals’ care given the other closest option is nearly an hour away.
“[An] independent practice typically generates a model that tends to be what we like to think of as a little bit more patient-focused, in that I’m the ENT surgeon, this is all I do, and now I have a building that my partners built,” he said. “I didn’t build it myself, but the concept is this was built by ENT providers, and we know what is needed for an efficient workflow process and to really result in a good experience.”
Due to that patient-centered focus, White said independent practices are both filling care gaps and providing additional options for patients to consider outside of large health systems.
“When you have more specialist groups coming in that are building these smaller clinics that are only made for this thing, I think it’s a really appealing option for more focused care,” he said. “It also tends to be more staffed by physicians who have a vested interest in their group and plan to be around for a long time.”
Speaking of which, White said he is actively attempting to recruit his fellow providers and friends to the Northwoods.
“I frequently recommend and advertise for the Northwoods to my friends I’ve met in medical school, residency and whatnot,” he said. “With my residency crew, Kentucky doesn’t have hardly any lakes, so I found a lake an hour and a half away that rented pontoons, and every year I would host all my co-residents for a pontoon trip… I’ve told all of them that starting next year, pontoon day is moving to Rhinelander, Wisconsin… So, hopefully, word gets out about how cool the Northwoods is to a few doctors through interactions like that.”
Having settled on a lake himself, White said he’s grateful to have both the career and home of his dreams.
“It’s just beautiful,” he said. “It’s the prettiest place I’ve ever lived, and I love being back.”
For more on ENT & Allergy Associates’ newest Rhinelander clinic, visit entwausau.com.
