OCONTO FALLS, Wis. – National Rural Health Day, founded by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health will be celebrated on Thursday, Nov. 16. The day highlights critical roles filled by rural hospitals and health care clinics across the country.

Together, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital and Prevea Health operate five Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) throughout Oconto County. The HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital Prevea Health Centers located in Oconto Falls, Gillett, Lena, Mountain and Suring are proud to provide primary care to all their neighbors. These clinics not only provide advanced health care options, but jobs to residents throughout the region. The services offered at these health care clinics and the hospital ensure rural residents have access to high-quality, modern health care options close to home.

“Our rural health clinics and hospital help smaller communities across Oconto County get the health care services our neighbors and visitors deserve,” said Nicole Stapleton, Director, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital Prevea Health Centers. “We’re proud to provide highly trained physicians and advanced practice providers who have access to the resources and state-of-the-art facilities needed to meet our patients’ needs.”

Nationally, it’s estimated 57 million Americans – one in five people – live in rural and frontier communities throughout the United States. “When our neighbors in Oconto County have health care needs, they rarely need to travel out of town to get first class care,” said Chris Brabant, President and CEO, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital. “Our emergency department is staffed 24/7; we have orthopedic and general surgeons; digestive health specialists; imaging and laboratory services; stroke care; and we offer cancer, vascular and wound care to our patients. It’s important to us to be able to offer our community a variety of care options they may need, close to home.”

In 2022, HSHs St. Clare Memorial Hospital was named a Top 22 Critical Access Hospital in the U.S. by The Chartis Center for Rural Health.

To learn more about rural health care services provided by Prevea Health and HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital in Oconto County, please visit: www.prevea.com/closer

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About HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital
HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital serves Oconto Falls and the surrounding communities as a federally designated critical access hospital with a 24-hour emergency department; inpatient and outpatient surgical and diagnostic services; cancer care; therapy and rehabilitation; wound care; the Almost Home Swing Bed program; and more. It was founded as Oconto Falls City Hospital in 1921 and became HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital in 2014 when it joined Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS). As an affiliate of HSHS, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital draws on the history of St. Francis of Assisi as it serves the health care needs of the region in Christ’s healing ministry, caring for all people. HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital also has five rural health center locations in affiliation with Prevea Health in Gillett, Lena, Mountain, Oconto Falls and Suring; and operates HSHS Pharmacies in Gillett and Oconto Falls, and HSHS Prescription Services (remote dispensing sites) in Lena, Mountain and Pulaski. In 2022, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital was named a Top 100 Critical Access Hospital in the U.S. by The Chartis Center for Rural Health. For more information about St. Clare, please visit: www.stclarememorial.org.

About Hospital Sisters Health System

Hospital Sisters Health System’s (HSHS) mission is to reveal and embody Christ’s healing love for all people through our high quality, Franciscan health care ministry. HSHS provides state-of-the-art health care to our patients and is dedicated to serving all people, especially the most vulnerable, at each of our 15 Local Systems and physician practices in Illinois (Breese, Decatur, Effingham, Greenville, Highland, Litchfield, O’Fallon, Shelbyville and Springfield) and Wisconsin (Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Oconto Falls, Sheboygan, and two in Green Bay). HSHS is sponsored by Hospital Sisters Ministries. For more information about HSHS, visit www.hshs.org.  For more information about Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, visit www.hospitalsisters.org.

About Prevea Health

Founded in Green Bay, Wis. in 1996, Prevea Health is a health care organization that provides high-quality, primary and specialty health care in 80+ locations across Northern, Eastern and Western Wisconsin in clinic and hospital settings. It is partnered with six Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) hospitals across Wisconsin to provide patients a system of highly coordinated care, close to home: HSHS St. Vincent Hospital and HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center in Green Bay; HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital in Sheboygan; HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital in Oconto Falls; HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire; and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls. For more information, visit www.prevea.com.