Milwaukee-based Froedtert Health and Neenah, Wis.-based ThedaCare finalized their merger agreement and launched a combined system in January.
Following the merger, leaders at the 18-hospital combined system, Froedtert ThedaCare Health, embraced the significant integration work ahead, from aligning the daily operations of the merging entities to integrating staff.
"When we announced our letter of intent, went through the process and came together on Jan. 1, we started mapping out our integration work," said Imran Andrabi, MD, who assumed the role of president and CEO of Froedtert ThedaCare Health, which is based in Wisconsin, on July 1.
"One of the things we thought was, 'Let's do all the other work on the front end,' even though we knew that our driver was going to be ensuring the highest quality, safest care, and the best experience for the people we are here to serve. We decided to do the clinical integration components a little later in the process, so that all the other processes were established before we got to that point."
Once committed to the clinical integration process, leaders organized a group of about 250 people across Froedtert Health, ThedaCare and the Medical College of Wisconsin, which engaged in various discussions.
"In a very significant, positive way, that culminated over five or six months into 14 different streams of work and a document that was over 600 pages coming from these clinicians that were on the ground having these discussions," Dr. Andrabi said.
The efforts yielded a list of 200 action items. Dr. Andrabi said clinicians narrowed those items to 10 top priorities, around which they are collectively putting charters, teams and leadership to bring together clinical integration across Froedtert Health, ThedaCare and the Medical College of Wisconsin. The idea of the integration is that people can move from one part of the system to another, potentially across geographies, in a seamless way.
"It might not seem like a novel concept," Dr. Andrabi said. "But the fact that we were in five months able to go through that level of discussion among 250 clinicians across three systems and bring together that kind of product and move forward to execute on it, to me, is a game changer itself."
Froedtert ThedaCare Health unveiled its board of directors in February, and, as of Jan. 1, Catherine Jacobson was CEO of the combined organization and Dr. Andrabi was president. Dr. Andrabi assumed the dual role of president and CEO of Froedtert ThedaCare Health on July 1 following Ms. Jacobson's retirement.
He said he is excited about the latest clinical integration work, which involved the following questions: What should I do in my day-to-day work? What does this transformation look like or integration look like? What are success measures going to look like?
"Even 10 [top priorities] is a lot. But how to arrive at the 10. How to agree to the 10. How to commit to the 10, and going through that process and having a voice at the table and being able to hear each other out," Dr. Andrabi said. "And then now, the second layer of leadership that is also being put together is people who are at the chief medical officer level or the senior medical director level who are leading the charge, bringing some of these things to fruition as we go forward is going to be exciting."
At the same time, he acknowledged that the work will not be flawless, but that "teams have set up a good oversight and governance model as well that will monitor and coach and support the work that will happen moving forward."