The Clinic & Its History
The Chippewa Valley Free Clinic (CVFC) is located at 1030 Oak Ridge Drive, Eau Claire, WI. It has a spacious reception area and five up-to-date exam rooms, as well as fully-furnished areas for medication dispensary, a nursing station and lab, patient interviews, and office space. It also has a full, 3-chair dental clinic, physical therapy office, and vision clinic office. An electronic medical record system is used for patient health records.
As a primary care clinic, it serves individuals who are uninsured or under-insured, provides health maintenance, helps people manage chronic illness, and provides minor urgent care. In our fiscal year of 2022-23, there were 3240 total patient visits (An average of 270 patient visits a month), 65% of whom were employed; most patients were 18-46 years old.
Although the CVFC employs several paid staff members (most of whom are part-time), it is dependent primarily on volunteers. Over 180 individuals volunteer their time and expertise. Volunteer activities occur largely in two areas: (a) health care, such as physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, social workers, and lab and pharmacy technicians; and (b) clinic support, such as receptionists, administrative assistants, food providers, and interpreters. Volunteers also serve in the medical director position and as board members and contribute to special projects.
In 2022-23, our volunteers logged more than 7,400 volunteer hours – an average of over 600 hours per month.
The CVFC was established in 1997. A small group of compassionate, forward-thinking community leaders came together to create a health care service for uninsured and low income individuals.
In 2012, the Clinic was relocated from 421 Graham Avenue in downtown Eau Claire to a location on Richard Drive. The Clinic then moved back downtown for brief period, calling 816 Porter Avenue, Suite 200 home before moving to its current location in 2019. Our permanent home is now in the professional medical district just off West Clairemont Avenue near Marshfield Clinic and HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital at 1030 Oak Ridge Drive, Eau Claire, WI 54703.
The Clinic has been generously supported by various contributions and grant awards, including: (a) fifteen years of rent-free space from Valleybrook Church, (b) Greater Chippewa Valley United Way, (c) Pablo Foundation, (d) Wisconsin Department of Health Services, (e) Eau Claire Community Foundation, and (f) the incredible generosity of individual donors.
Many of our Clinic services are made possible in large part by our partnerships with healthcare leaders in our community, including Mayo Clinic Health System, Marshfield Clinic Health System, HSHS Sacred Heart, Prevea Health, OakLeaf Surgical Hospital & Clinics, and Chippewa Valley Technical College.
See the most recent annual report