2006 System Review
Director’s message
Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States; the Green Bay Packers did not yet exist; the United States was one year away from joining World War I; the cost of a stamp was two cents, and Marshfield Clinic was founded.
The year was 1916, and the concept of a multispecialty group practice was new – and considered objectionable by many people. Yet six Marshfield physicians decided to join forces in a group practice of medicine to provide better care for their patients.
The concept proved to be successful, and Marshfield Clinic is now a 90-year-old world-renowned multispecialty medical practice that strives to provide better care for patients and communities by providing high quality health care, research and education.
As we celebrate Marshfield Clinic’s first 90 years of service, we continue to subscribe to the ideals our six founders set. Being a health care system that combines the expertise of many specialists within one organization, serves as a leading research center and makes education available to physicians, staff and patients allows us to offer the highest quality care and other services to our patients and our communities.
In addition to celebrating our 90th anniversary, in 2006 we celebrated with local, state and federal dignitaries the groundbreaking for a major addition to our research and clinical laboratory facilities. The Laird Center for Medical Research will allow greater collaboration among researchers and clinicians, and bring results of research to patients more efficiently than ever before. This new 112,300-square-foot facility is scheduled to be completed in early 2008.
We continue to see growth throughout the Marshfield Clinic system. In 2006, we saw 362,000 unique patients at our 41 centers with patient encounters exceeding 3,300,000. These patients came from every county in Wisconsin, every state in the nation and 20 foreign countries.
We built new state-of-the-art facilities for Marshfield Clinic Mercer and Eagle River centers, and began a major expansion of the Eau Claire Center. Construction of a new Marshfield Clinic Rice Lake Center, to replace cramped, outdated facilities at Marshfield Clinic Indianhead Center in Rice Lake, began in 2006 and is scheduled to be complete in January 2008.
Education is a strong component of our system, and we are working to become more closely affiliated with the University of Wisconsin by making Marshfield Clinic an official campus of the UW. In addition, in 2007 we will expand our residency program by adding a pharmacy residency.
Security Health Plan of Wisconsin, Inc., the health maintenance organization sponsored by Marshfield Clinic, was named among America’s Best Health Plans® by U.S. News and World Report and the National Committee for Quality Assurance®, the major accrediting body for managed care plans. Overall enrollment in the Health Plan grew more than 10 percent in the last year.
We are pleased to be celebrating our first 90 years of service in 2006. This anniversary is an important chapter in our history. We are fortunate to have such a rich history. The good will that we have achieved from patients, businesses, communities and governmental bodies throughout our entire system is the result of the hard work of generations of physicians and staff. We will do our best to continue building on our firm foundation.
Sincerely,
Karl J. Ulrich, M.D., M.M.M., President and
Chief Executive Officer
Reed E. Hall, Executive Director
