Primary care clinic planned off of North Shore Drive

BY KEVIN BONESKE

REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER

A site plan for the Marshfield Clinic to construct a nearly 4,000-square-foot primary care clinic off of North Shore Drive, just west of the Marshfield Clinic’s Rhinelander Dental Center, received the backing Tuesday of the city’s Planning Commission.

City building inspector/fire chief Terry Williams said the primary care clinic would share a driveway entrance with the dental center and have 16 of its own parking spaces for patients and employees.

Steve Campbell from the Wendel Companies, which has been involved in putting together the plans for the primary care clinic, said the site would also include a concrete pad to place a mobile MRI.

“A pretty basic building, if you will, the small practice that the North Shore clinic is looking to get situated here in the city of Rhinelander,” Campbell said.

Marshfield Clinic facilities project manager Farrah Lemmon said the primary care clinic initially would have six full-time staff with a primary care practitioner and offer lab and x-ray services. She also noted the mobile unit would be used mostly for mammography with capabilities for a larger unit to come on site.

“Our current Marshfield Clinic population, we see patients from Rhinelander over in Minocqua, Eagle River, some of those markets,” Lemmon said. “Our focus is to try to start to see just primary care within the community here.”

The Planning Commission’s recommendation to approve the site plan is being forwarded to the full City Council for final approval at Monday's special council meeting.