June 8, 2015
*Pictured: This rendering depicts a Marshfield Clinic patient comfort and recovery suites facility. Four Marshfield Clinic center locations will have these facilities with minor variations to this design.
Marshfield Clinic is expanding its Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) in Eau Claire, Marshfield, Minocqua and Wausau to include post-surgery patient comfort and recovery suites.
These new post-surgery areas have a small number of beds in private suites that provide patients with 24-hour access to care and medical staff, including physicians and nurses. Patients will recover in the comfort and recovery suites following surgery and other procedures completed in an ASC.
This approach will allow the Clinic to provide high quality outpatient surgeries, currently performed in a hospital setting at a considerably higher cost. It's estimated such a transition of hospital-based surgeries to an outpatient setting will translate to lower costs; decrease risk for infection and falls; and a superior experience for the patient.
Work has begun in Eau Claire, remodeling underway in Marshfield with construction at the other sites to begin soon. All four locations are expected to open to patients within the next year.
"Giving patients close and convenient access to physicians, nurses and physical therapists means a quicker return to good health and, ultimately, reduced costs for the patient. This is a paradigm shift in health care delivery that provides high quality, cutting-edge, best-value medical care for our patients and communities," said Marshfield Clinic Executive Director Narayana Murali, M.D.
The Clinic is looking to contract with a third party to operate the facilities but details have not yet been finalized. Also, the Clinic will add about 160 positions across the four locations to provide patient care, from registered nurses and other patient care personnel to support staff.
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The Marshfield Clinic system provides patient care, research and education in more than 50 locations in northern, central and western Wisconsin, making it one of the largest comprehensive medical systems in the United States.