TIGERTON (NBC26) — ThedaCare is reopening its medical clinic in Tigerton after temporarily closing for 10 months due to the pandemic, once again filling the gap in rural healthcare needs with a historical twist.
Tigerton is home to the 100-year-old Swanke Mansion, first a family home and later a hospital.
The building is currently owned by Tigerton Clinic Inc, a nonprofit organization ensuring community healthcare needs are met. ThedaCare has leased the first floor for a rural community health clinic since 1994.
Dr. Jasmine Wiley, a family medicine physician with ThedaCare Family Medicine - Tigerton, said the clinic provides basic medical care for around 1,400 patients.
The pandemic temporarily put a pause on operations.
“ThedaCare kind of in the beginning of March closed all of our rural outlying clinics - smaller clinics - really out of concern for being able to keep our patients and our staff safe," Wiley said.
ThedaCare consolidated operations to two larger clinics in Shawano and Clintonville.
With ThedaCare being the only general healthcare provider in Tigerton, the clinic's closure added challenges on both community members and staff.
“It’s a 20, 30 minute drive to any of the other (clinics), both outside of our system and within the ThedaCare system," Wiley said.
Due to the longer commute, Wiley said medical staff scheduled virtual visits with patients. She said that was sometimes difficult because of weaker internet signals, so they'd switch to phone appointments.
“If you want to go to the doctor now you can’t just drive five minutes to come down to the clinic. You have to go to Clintonville, or you have to go to Wittenberg to go to the doctor and a lot of our elderly population can’t do that," said Aaron Damrau, clinic manager with Tigerton Clinic Inc. “There’s a lot of people I think that have been foregoing getting the medical care that they need, because they can’t travel and it’s huge to have a clinic in your community.”
With plans to reopen next week, people have a lot to look forward to.
Since mid-November, volunteers poured hundreds of hours into renovating the historic building. Damrau and Wiley spearheaded the project, which included restoring original cork and tile floors, room layouts and paint colors. The existing elevator was removed and a handicap ramp was added at the back entrance.
“People want to see this place open. They have ties to this building. They were born here. Their parents were born here," Damrau said. “It is a community effort to get this building back open and to get the healthcare services that we need,"
Wiley said she spent around 600 hours working on the building.
“It’s been a ton of fun to really be able to put that time and effort into it and have something really wonderful for the community and our patients to come back to.”
The clinic is set to open Monday. Some renovations are still a work in progress.
