Two Wisconsin health systems — Froedtert Health and ThedaCare — have signed a letter of intent to merge into a single system.
Milwaukee-based Froedtert and Neenah-based ThedaCare announced the plan to combine April 11 with the goal to close the deal by the end of the year.
Froedtert President and CEO Cathy Jacobson will initially serve as CEO of the combined organization, and ThedaCare President and CEO Imran Andrabi, MD, will serve as president. After a six-month transition, Ms. Jacobson will retire from the organization and Dr. Andrabi will assume the role of president and CEO of the combined organization.
The organizations have already named five leaders to executive roles of the combined system:
- ThedaCare Chief Strategy Officer Thomas Arquilla will serve as chief growth officer
- Froedtert Executive Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer and Treasurer Scott Hawig will serve as CFO
- Froedtert Chief Business Development Officer David Olson will serve as chief business development officer
- Froedtert Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer Ian Schwartz, MD, will serve as chief clinical officer
- ThedaCare COO and CFO Mark Thompson will serve as chief transformation investment officer
The combined organization will be governed by a parent board made up of representatives of both organizations with 18 members, including the Froedtert and ThedaCare's CEOs. The initial board chair will be Jud Snyder, Froedtert's current vice chair and chair-elect, and the initial vice chair will be Jim Kotek, ThedaCare's current board chair.
Froedtert is partnered with the Medical College of Wisconsin, and together the network includes 10 hospital locations, more than 2,100 physicians and 45 health centers and clinics. Its flagship 711-bed Froedtert Hospital is a Level 1 trauma center and a major training hub for more than 1,000 medical, nursing and health tech students each year. ThedaCare includes 180 points of care, including eight hospitals, for more than 650,000 people throughout northeast and central Wisconsin.
Froedtert and ThedaCare struck two different partnerships in fall 2022. In the first, Froedtert agreed to provide specialty care — heart and lung transplants and advanced heart failure care — to ThedaCare patients, with ThedaCare providing care locally before and after. In the second partnership, the two struck a joint venture for the creation of two health campuses with micro-hospitals in Fond Du Lac and Oshkosh, Wis.