Dr. Dean Gruner, President and CEO of ThedaCare, (left) and John Feeney, CEO of Community Health Network, stand with Beth Malchetske, who will be leading the affiliation transition for the two health care systems.
When Beth Malchetske takes on her new role as Director of Business Integration for ThedaCare and Community Health Network (CHN), bridging the new affiliation between the two health care systems, it will be like coming home. “I started my career at CHN in 1984, moving on to ThedaCare in 1996,” she said. “ At CHN I learned so much about how the whole business runs – you have to in a smaller organization. You get to wear many hats.” Berlin has been home for Beth for 28 years.
The newly formed relationship between ThedaCare and CHN was announced in January. Berlin Hospital, like many smaller community hospital systems, has been especially challenged to provide high quality services with limited financial resources. Many hospitals have been affiliating with larger healthcare systems to be able to continue to provide quality service for their patients. The job of bridging the two organizations together smoothly now belongs to Beth.
Brian Burmeister, senior vice president for ThedaCare, said Beth is the perfect choice for integrating the two organizations. “Beth was the project lead for ThedaCare’s Collaborative Care model and the Hospital of the Future – two massive projects that have led to amazing improvements in patient care,” said Brian. “She’s also been more recently working on integrating health information processes across our five hospitals, and is very familiar with bridging complex business processes. With her expertise in information technology, operational processes, compliance, and other components to the business, as well as being part of both the ThedaCare and CHN organizations, plus her work ethic, we’re confident that the integration will be done with great care for both organizations.”
The key to integration is listening
So how does Beth plan to begin the integration process? Besides project planning, Beth says, “The key to integration starts with listening – and then bringing the right people into the discussion to solve the issue at hand. I’m going into this process with an open heart and mind. It needs to be good for both organizations to make it successful.”
She knows there will challenges along the way, but she’s looking forward to helping her colleagues from both organizations navigate the integration waters, helping them be successful.
She’s also looking forward to reconnecting with her colleagues at CHN, and not having to make the two-hour commute every day. Instead, she’ll be 100 yards away from her new workplace. That’s just fine with Beth. She and her husband, Bob, have great family and friends in the Berlin area. He’s an investment officer at the Farmers & Merchants Bank. Their son, Patrick, is a freshman at Marquette this year – hoping to go into a medical career.
In her rare spare time, she sits on the school board for the Berlin Area School District and volunteers for the Wisconsin Health Information Management Association. She also belongs to the American Health Information Management Association.
Beth graduated from Kiel High School and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in Health Information Administration. She gained her accreditation (RHIA) in 1983 and got her Master in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1994.
