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March 17, 2025
CHIPPEWA FALLS – Following a competitive review process, the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative (CVHC) has awarded the architectural and engineering design services assignment for the hospital it plans to build in Lake Hallie to River Valley Architects (RVA).
“The review process was extremely competitive,” Thomas Larson – member of the cooperative’s board of organizers who co-led the architecture review process – said. “We were impressed with many of the presentations and frankly had several great options. RVA won on an objective point-scoring process which included many different reviewers.”
Larson said RVA scored the highest among a pool of qualified architects across criteria including design, experience, references, fees and local building codes and requirements expertise.
In addition, he said RVA brought its local partners to the table to demonstrate its ability to “hit the ground running with a complete team, experienced at working together for excellent outcomes.”
The proposed site for the hospital is located in Lake Hallie on the west side of Highway 53 between Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire.
Larson said CVHC chose the location to provide access to emergency and inpatient services to the region’s patients, in addition to its flexibility for future growth.
CVHC Chair Robert Krause said the 144,000-square-foot, “state-of-the-art” hospital will be a flexible facility and will include:
- 48 hospital beds
- A 12-bed intensive care unit (ICU)
- Emergency department
- Medical-surgical services
- Labor and delivery
- Critical care units
- A comprehensive cancer center with diagnostic services, including laboratory, radiology and cardiology
- Physical, occupational and speech therapies
Krause said the cooperative expects to open the doors of the new hospital in late 2027, as the CVHC continues to make “considerable progress in its due diligence in assessing the financial feasibility of reopening the St. Joseph’s campus in Chippewa Falls as an interim facility while the new hospital is being built.”
“We’ve made good progress in our due diligence process in the last 60 days,” he said. “So far, what we’ve seen is encouraging, and we are fast-tracking the rest of the required due diligence now.”
Mike Sanders – managing director of 1100 Partners and former CEO of Monroe Clinic, who has been working hand-in-hand with CVHC since it was formed – said the cooperative’s board believes that most of the investment required to reopen the St. Joseph’s facility will be transferable to the new hospital.
“If financially feasible, our plan is to optimize the interim facility with an eye toward moving as much of the equipment, technology and infrastructure to the new hospital,” Sanders said. “As a short-term solution, we hope the St. Joseph’s facility can fill a critical need and give us a leg up on the new future-forward hospital.”
Krause also said CVHC is in discussions with various mental health providers to explore partnership opportunities for providing mental health services for the Chippewa Valley region as soon as possible.
“Our community urgently needs robust behavioral health services here so that patients aren’t sent hours away during crises and for rehabilitation,” he said. “We are working in earnest to be able to help close the significant behavioral health gap with a strategic partnership at our facilities.”
