An outpatient imaging provider is attempting to capitalize on the planned closure of two hospitals in western Wisconsin.
Hospital Sisters Health System announced in January that, “after thoughtful consideration,” it is shuttering locations in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls as part of a “complete exit” from the region. In addition, Prevea Health, a physician network of specialty and primary care clinics, is closing all 19 of its locations across western Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley.
Smart Scan Medical Imaging has sought to attract customers impacted by the news, noting the institutions were seeing 400 patients per month, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
“The result is that hundreds of northwestern Wisconsinites are needlessly waiting to be scanned and to get their results,” Smart Scan said in a Feb. 13 announcement. “The delay in diagnosis and treatment concerns some patients and their doctors.”
Smart Scan first opened in November 2022 in the community of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Since then, it has served “hundreds” of patients and referring providers, later opening additional locations in Weston and Middleton. The imaging group also offers same- or next-day appointments and charges $650 for MRI scans without contrast and $850 for those with such enhancements.
“Our goal at Smart Scan is to get patients scanned and results delivered to their doctors within a day or two from when they first contact our clinic. Smart Scan can take orders from anywhere, even a now-closed hospital or clinic," radiologist and Founder Jeffrey L. Rosengarten, MD, said in the announcement.
Hospital Sisters Health System expects to complete most facility closures by April 21. Prevea residency clinics, meanwhile, will shutter on or before June 30. Those involved said the move will impact roughly 400 physicians and other colleagues, who will receive support services and career transition assistance. Roughly 136 rural hospitals closed between 2010 and 2021 including a record 19 in 2020, according to the American Hospital Association.
“While HSHS and Prevea intended to create an integrated health delivery model in Western Wisconsin in 2015, our operations in the region have struggled for the past several years due to a mismatch in the supply of and demand for local healthcare services,” Damond Boatwright, president and CEO of HSHS, said in a Jan. 22 announcement. “We closely considered all other options and sought strategic alternatives. After an agreement with a suitable partner did not work out, it was determined that exiting the market is the only feasible path forward.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.