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Northcentral Healthcare outlines services, budgets and staffing challenges for tri‑county region
Summary
Northcentral Healthcare presented a detailed program and budget overview to Marathon County supervisors: the organization reported a roughly $94 million budget, 582 FTEs, multiple inpatient and crisis facilities, and plans to expand mobile crisis services while contending with staffing shortages that have paused its Intensive Outpatient Program.
Jason Hake, executive director of Northcentral Healthcare, told the committee the organization operates as a tri‑county public provider for Marathon, Lincoln and Langlade Counties under a tri‑county contract. He said Northcentral's 2026 operating budget was about $94 million, with approximately 73% of revenue from net patient service billing and roughly $6.7 million in county appropriations (about $5.8 million from Marathon County).
Hake reviewed the agency's continuum of care: 24/7 crisis phone and in‑person services, mobile crisis teams and a Crisis Assessment Response Team (CART) that pairs crisis professionals with law enforcement. He noted the adult psychiatric hospital averages a 5.9‑day length of stay, an average daily census just under 10, and 705 adult admissions in 2026, of which 42% were involuntary emergency detentions. He also described an 8‑bed youth behavioral hospital, a 16‑bed medically monitored treatment (MMT) program with a 69% graduation rate, and county‑operated nursing home capacity.
Hake said Northcentral is exploring a move toward a 24/7 co‑responder model by adding two evening mobile crisis staff to pair with law enforcement during peak demand (2 p.m. to 10 p.m.). He and county administration acknowledged staffing constraints: the Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) remains paused because of a shortage of substance‑use counselors and recruitment is a top priority. Hake credited partnerships — including psychiatry residency rotations with the Medical College of Wisconsin — for bolstering recruitment and said Northcentral currently employs about 582 full‑time equivalents.
Committee members pressed for details on FTE breakdowns and financial impacts; Leonard said certain reorganizations and LTE to FTE conversions were proposed and the committee voted unanimously to support the requested reclassifications and moves to HR Finance for further processing.
