ThedaCare, Inc.

Lean Innovations at ThedaCare

Using 29 rapid improvement events, a 3p, and a 2p with 39 separate mock- ups of the patient rooms, ThedaCare designed a revolutionary new inpatient care unit that is leading to zero medication errors, 100% compliance with all quality performance indicators and dramatically improved patient and staff satisfaction. This new process is called Collaborative Care, and the presentation will detail how it was accomplished.

ThedaCare™ is a community health system consisting of four hospitals: Appleton Medical Center, Theda Clark Medical Center, New London Family Medical Center and Riverside Medical Center in Waupaca, Wisconsin. ThedaCare also includes ThedaCare Physicians, ThedaCare Behavioral Health, ThedaCare Laboratories, and Ingenuity First™. ThedaCare also has a Home Care and Senior Services Division which includes ThedaCare at Home, The Heritage Residential Living Community, Heritage Woods Assisted Living, and Peabody Manor skilled nursing facility. Joint ventures include Gold Cross Ambulance, the Appleton Heart Institute, and Quality Health Solutions. ThedaCare is the third largest healthcare employer in the state and is the largest employer in Wisconsin’s second largest economic market, Northeast Wisconsin, with nearly 5,400 employees.

Dr. John Toussaint, President/CEO

Dr. John Toussaint is the Chief Executive Officer of ThedaCare Inc. He is an internist who has served multiple roles at ThedaCare including Chief of the Medicine Department to Chief Medical Officer. He has been President & CEO of ThedaCare since March of 2000. Dr. Toussaint has been responsible for introducing the ThedaCare Improvement System which is derived from the Toyota Production System. This model of Continuous Improvement is transforming ThedaCare to the same level of quality performance achieved by manufacturing companies.

Dr. Toussaint has recently been appointed to the Institute of Medicine Committee on Pay for Performance for physicians and Governor Doyle’s e-Health and Patient Safety Board.