Much work lies ahead as Milwaukee-based Froedtert and Neenah, Wis.-based ThedaCare prepare to launch Jan. 1 as a merged organization, but Froedtert CEO Cathy Jacobson sees it as an opportunity rather than a challenge.
"There's been a lot of work to get us here," Ms. Jacobson told Becker's. "We want people to take some time off over the holidays, and then we want them to come together and be excited because we're creating something new here. This isn't Froedtert Health, this isn't ThedaCare, this is a new organization."
Ms. Jacobson will serve as the CEO of the combined organization for the first six months, and ThedaCare President and CEO Imran Andrabi, MD, will serve as president. After that six-month transition period, Ms. Jacobson will retire from the organization and Dr. Andrabi will assume the role of president and CEO.
She said her focus will stay on some of the external relationships such as with the Medical College of Wisconsin, the system's health plan and getting the new board of directors up and running. She will not be with the organization in the next fiscal year, so she will not be involved in the budgeting and goal-setting processes. That will be the responsibility of Dr. Andrabi and the executive leadership team going forward; the same goes for work such as integration.
"Both of the organizations have had a tremendous legacy and have had a tremendous track record of being stewards to their communities, community partners, working on quality and safety and improving overall health and well-being and creating value," Dr. Andrabi said.
He said he is excited about the opportunity to bring together each organization's strengths and create the next level of care for the people they serve.
"We want to be thoughtful, we want to be methodical," Dr. Andrabi said. "We want to be sure we're doing it the right way, for the right reasons, without compromising at any point in time what we have done so well over decades, which is taking care of people."