Building a Firmer Foundation

Exciting changes lie ahead for ThedaCare as the new year begins. A $100 million project to modernize ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah is well underway and expected to open by late fall of 2023. 

The “Inspired Past: Healthier Future” project will help ThedaCare further its mission of improving the health and well-being of the people and communities it serves.

The needs of patients and their loved ones — along with ThedaCare team members — are at the forefront of this project. Every decision is centered on providing an exceptional patient experience, expanding services, reducing cost, and improving safety and capacity.

“The modernization will benefit our entire ThedaCare system, making our teams stronger together,” ThedaCare President and CEO Dr. Imran Andrabi said. “Our organization is honored to continue serving patients and families and empowering each person to live their unique, best life.”

Highlights of the project include:

• Increasing the protection of patients and improving efficiency for team members by expanding the emergency department. This includes adding 20 exam rooms, with specialized rooms for trauma and behavioral health patients.
• Allowing for a more rapid transfer of patients — and the protection of their privacy and dignity during times of trauma — through the creation of an additional ThedaStar Air Medical Program Helipad adjacent to the emergency department.
• Enhancing specialized space to care for stroke patients as the region’s only Comprehensive Stroke Center, a designation given to those hospitals that have specific abilities to care for the most complex stroke cases.
• Updating operating rooms to include advanced robotic surgical equipment and creating four dedicated robotics suites to support better outcomes for patients and develop an outstanding teaching environment as leaders in robotic surgery.
• Updating the Family Birth Center, allowing families to welcome babies into the world in a modern, comfortable and soothing environment.
• Creating a new environment for the Women’s Center, which includes mammography, diagnostics and imaging, and bone density testing. The space will establish a comfortable area where women can feel confident in their personalized, proactive health care decisions.
• Creating “Main Street,” where key diagnostic outpatient services will be located on the first floor of the hospital to ensure easier patient access.
• Designing a new dining area on the main floor for the convenience of visitors and team members.

Carrying on a Legacy

Working to improve the quality of life for everyone in northeast and central Wisconsin has been the ThedaCare legacy since 1909. The opportunity to deliver comprehensive care to hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites was made possible when Theda Clark Peters directed a significant portion of her estate to be used to build a hospital in Neenah. Her generosity transformed the quality of life for community members.

“We are all proud to call this our home. This region is known for a deep connection to family, to friends, to neighbors, and quite simply for caring for each other,” said Jim Kotek, President of the ThedaCare Board of Trustees and President and CEO of Menasha Corp.

ThedaCare’s founding commitment also inspired the new Graduate Medical Education (GME) program at the Neenah campus. It will provide formal medical education and training for medical doctors and doctors of osteopathic medicine.

Once complete, ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah will be the first hospital in Wisconsin to offer an accredited GME program outside of Milwaukee and Madison. It will be an opportunity for future caregivers to attain professional development and experience in the communities ThedaCare serves. The hope is that they will like what they experience and choose to stay.

Not-for-Profit Health Care

Investing in projects like “Inspired Past: Healthier Future” is part of what it means for ThedaCare to be a not-for-profit health system.

“The way I talk about is, we are not a for-profit health system where we have shareholders. We aren’t making dividends. We’re not giving out money to anybody because they have invested in ThedaCare,” Dr. Andrabi said. “Our dividends are the work that we do, which is to improve the health and well-being of the people of our communities.”

That means that every dollar ThedaCare makes is reinvested into projects like the hospital modernization. In carrying out its commitment to population health, ThedaCare also works to address social determinants of health. These include people’s health behaviors, the clinical care they receive, their social and economic factors, and the physical environment in which they live.

“All of those things require investment, and that’s our way of investing back into the community,” Dr. Andrabi said.