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Park Falls medical center stays fully operational while undergoing reconstruction

Phase 1 of the Marshfield Medical Center’s upgrade maintains schedule, budget, services

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April 1, 2024

PARK FALLS – After touring some of the freshly remodeled areas of the Marshfield Medical Center in Park Falls, Laurie McKuen – the vice president of operations and patient care services for Marshfield Medical Center’s Park Falls and Phillips locations – said “it’s overwhelming, actually.”

Fortunately, McKuen said, it’s only the awe and admiration of the center’s updates overwhelming its staff – as opposed to the temporary detours and room relocations.

“The fact we can incorporate this (reconstruction) and not interrupt patient care is mind-blowing,” she said.

McKuen said the goal of the renovations – which kicked off last spring – is “to continue to provide high-quality care and a state-of-the-art facility.”

However, she said as the VP of operations, she needs to ensure the center’s future plans do not compromise its present treatment capabilities.

“(It’s taken) a lot of moving parts to make that happen,” she said. “Great management and teams, and everybody pulling together.” 

A timely update

Though the hospital wasn’t always owned by the Marshfield Clinic Health System, McKuen said, its origins in Park Falls go back more than 100 years.

“It started downtown across the river in a building that is still standing,” she said. “A couple of (health care) providers came together and started the hospital there. It’s been in this location since the ’50s.”

McKuen said, until the current reconstruction project, the medical center had been partly composed of buildings from that era or shortly thereafter.

“We have one building that is a 1959 building that holds all of our main infrastructure,” she said. “We were looking at updating the facilities – a lot of the heating and cooling. We didn’t have air conditioning in the patient care areas, so in the areas where we did have air conditioning, we had to monitor our temperatures, like the lab and the (operating room). We struggled with it because all of our air handlers were outdated.”

McKuen said the hospital was also limited to eight inpatient care rooms, which are routinely full.

These aging infrastructure issues, she said, prompted Marshfield Medical Center leadership to apply for state funding in 2021.

“We wrote a grant to the State of Wisconsin for the Healthcare Infrastructure Capital Grant Program, and were granted $20 million,” she said. “With that, Marshfield Clinic agreed to doing a $35 million project here in Park Falls.”

The project, McKuen said, not only modernizes the center’s facilities and adds three more inpatient care rooms, it also helps to make the medical center more comfortable for its patients.

She said this includes “more welcoming” lighting and décor throughout the center, as well as private bathrooms for each patient care room, which she said were previously shared among patients.

“This build will help incorporate that more relaxing, healing environment,” she said. “And the lighting upgrade – I can’t say enough about that. (It) gave a lot more of a warm light in the inpatient areas, and that has been well received.”

Another improvement for the rooms, McKuen said, will be larger windows to view the center’s surroundings.

“Our lawns and our wooded area are home to a lot of deer, with fawns in the spring,” she said. “We’ve even had a mama bear and three cubs that were entertaining us on occasion a couple of years back. And now all these rooms are providing this opportunity. The rooms are larger – they’re welcoming and will provide a nice healing atmosphere. We’re proud to offer that to the community.”

Two phases

McKuen said a reconstruction project of such scope required it to be split into two phases.

The more cosmetic updates – such as lighting, flooring and furniture – she said, are part of Phase 1 and have already been completed in existing areas.

The other important steps of the first phase, McKuen said, involve interim moves of the clinic’s physical therapy and occupational therapy departments, as well as the hospital’s medical floor – moves she said are on schedule for this May and June, respectively.

“For those areas, (there will be) a lot of signage – a lot of support for our patients,” she said. “We’ll be making phone calls so they know where their entrance should be. The one nice thing is we are a small facility. We have one entrance, so we’ll be able to guide the patients in the right directions easily.”

Other operational arrangements, McKuen said, have been made to continue the medical center’s nutritional and laundry services without affecting patient care whatsoever.

“That has created some challenges,” she said, “But, boy, it has pulled together nicely.”

McKuen said Phase 2 will see the center’s 1959 and 1966 buildings razed, and corresponding, interim moves made for the administrative offices and laboratory.

The whole process is scheduled to be completed by fall 2025 – a timeline she said is, as of yet, entirely feasible.

McKuen said a less-than-harsh winter helped the process.

“We’re right on schedule and on budget,” she said. “We’ve been blessed with this project. No big surprises jumping up – I’m going to knock on wood right now.”

Another benefit of the reconstruction, McKuen said, will be reorienting what has been a multi-building campus into a more connected facility.

This, she said, will, in turn, foster a better-connected staff.

“The entire hospital will be one building, and we’ll all be together – which I’m excited about,” she said. “We’re going to be a lot tighter and closer and get to see and be part of what’s happening easier.” 

A facility for the community 

McKuen said the investment in the Marshfield Medical Center in Park Falls has been encouraging in ways more than monetarily.

“It made us proud,” she said. “Being a small community, we’re proud of the care we give and to have the Marshfield Clinic believe in us. I want our patients to be as proud of this facility as we will be, and as I am already, as I tour it. It’s their facility. We’re here to serve the community – to provide high-quality care and for them to be able to walk into a state-of-the-art facility that’s truly theirs.”

To follow the project’s progress, visit MarshfieldClinic.org/Regional/ParkFalls or check out the center’s Facebook page.

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