Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
The newly constructed ThedaCare Medical Center-Shawano will be unveiled to the public on Sept. 16 with a ribbon-cutting, open house and tours of the $52 million hospital.
TCMC-Shawano, which replaces the 82-year-old Shawano Medical Center, will begin providing patient care on Sept. 20, but hospital officials will celebrate its grand opening four days early starting with a ribbon cutting at 4:15 p.m.
The public will then be invited to tour the new facility at 100 County Road B in Shawano and take part in the open house, which runs until 7:30 p.m.
Northeast Wisconsin Technical College will also showcase its new 5,000-square-foot nurse education center, located as part of a shared learning center inside TCMC-Shawano.
Remarks will be shared by Dorothy Erdmann, CEO, Shawano Medical Center, and H. Jeff Rafn, president, NWTC.
“We are uniquely positioned to work together toward a common goal — to train nurses exactly where they will be needed, in Shawano’s own community health care setting,” Rafn said. “This partnership provides more access to education for Shawano, more supervised patient care practice for NWTC students, and more health care graduates for the region. It’s a great opportunity for everyone involved.”
Erdmann credits these community partnerships founded on good stewardship and cooperative spirit for making possible the new Shawano hospital.
“We’ve worked hard to be good stewards of our community’s health care and education resources,” she said. “We’ve affirmed our belief in excellent quality health care close to home. This will be a very special day when we unveil our new community hospital to the people who helped build it and who will sustain it for future generations.”
Facility highlights
The main hospital doors will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Adjacent to the existing ThedaCare Physicians-Shawano clinic, the 128,000-square foot addition is Silver LEED-certified for green building practices.
Patient care units are served by four separate nursing hubs, just steps away from a small number of patient rooms. The design of the new hospital emphasizes views of nature and natural lighting. Spaces have been designed to flex for different purposes, including visiting specialists, and weekend and walk-in clinics.
Outpatients will have easy access to lab and X-ray services, and surgery and birthing suites are located convenient to one another.
The cooperative learning center, the first of its kind in Wisconsin, will be used by about 60 NWTC nursing students per year and current ThedaCare staff for orientations and continuing education.
The dream continues
The founding hospital in the ThedaCare family, Theda Clark Medical Center, began as a vision for Theda Clark Peters, a woman who cared so deeply for her community that she devoted her life to doing everything possible to improve the lives of people around her.
One of her greatest dreams was to bring health care to people in rural areas of the state.
Shawano Medical Center joined the ThedaCare family in 2011 with a continuing commitment to serving people in Shawano, Menominee and Waupaca counties.
Much like Theda Clark Peters, the staff at ThedaCare Medical Center-Shawano is devoted to working tirelessly to improve the health and well being of the community.