Healthcare Leaders Meet with Berlin Area Business, Community Leaders
ThedaCare met Monday, Nov. 9, with business and community leaders over lunch to discuss changes in health care at the 2015 Berlin Community Conversation. Held at the City Inn, the annual event was an opportunity for ThedaCare leaders to share information about the past year, look ahead to coming changes, listen to concerns, and take questions.
The theme for this year’s ThedaCare Community Conversations, scheduled into December at seven different sites across Northeast Wisconsin, is “It’s About Time.” The theme refers to the health care network’s newly launched branding effort; the organization’s commitment to trauma response in rural areas; the ThedaCare Regional Cancer Center, currently under construction next to Encircle Health in Appleton; and the time dedicated by ThedaCare staff to improving health outside the walls of the system’s clinics and hospitals.
The luncheon was emceed by Dr. Dean Gruner, ThedaCare president and CEO, and featured remarks by John Feeney, CEO and president of Community Health Network; Dr. Craig Batley of CHN Medical Center Eastridge; and Dr. Matthias Weiss, MD, PhD, of ThedaCare Regional Cancer Center.
This year ThedaCare implemented a branding effort that involved re-naming hospitals with the ThedaCare moniker. In the first quarter of 2016, CHN/Berlin Memorial Hospital will be renamed ThedaCare Medical Center-Berlin. “Our new name will provide clarity,” said Feeney. “With one name, we represent ourselves as one system. It means that no matter where you live, when you have access to one ThedaCare facility, you have access to all of them.”
Dr. Weiss spoke about the construction of the ThedaCare Regional Cancer Center and its team approach to cancer care. “Our goal is to provide an integrated, collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to all our patients presenting with any type of cancer and stage,” he said. “We are sincere about providing world-class cancer care close to home, in our own communities, so patients and their families don’t need to travel outside the area for care unless it’s absolutely necessary. More time at home, with those you love, helps people heal, too.”
The ThedaCare Rural Trauma Team Development Course was designed to enhance trauma response in every corner of ThedaCare’s 14-county service area. “This is when time becomes a matter of life or death,” said Feeney. “ThedaCare partnered with police, fire, first responders, and Berlin’s hospital staff to be trained and coordinated for an effective response to traumatic events or accidents to give our patients the absolute best chance for survival.”
ThedaCare providers and staff spend significant time not only in hospitals and clinics, but in the larger community to improve health. In the past year, the paid time that ThedaCare employees and providers spent on improving health beyond the walls of hospitals and clinics totaled more than 93,000 hours.
ThedaCare gave back to the communities it serves by providing $39,960,942 in unreimbursed services, including unreimbursed medical care, health professional education, and community benefit activities, to local communities in 2014. In the Berlin area, that community benefit was $4,739,012.
There are four more regional Community Conversations scheduled. Anyone wishing to receive a print copy of today’s report can contact Paula Morgen, community health manager for ThedaCare, at (920) 830-5848 or paula.morgen@thedacare.org.
For more than 100 years, ThedaCare™ has been committed to finding a better way to deliver serious and complex health care to patients throughout Northeast Wisconsin. The organization serves more than 200,000 patients annually and employs more than 6,800 healthcare professionals throughout the region. ThedaCare has seven hospitals located in Appleton, Neenah, Berlin, Waupaca, Shawano, New London and Wild Rose and 35 clinics in 14 counties. ThedaCare is the first in Wisconsin to be a Mayo Clinic Care Network Member, giving our specialists the ability to consult with Mayo Clinic experts on a patient’s care. ThedaCare is a non-profit healthcare organization with a level II trauma center, comprehensive cancer treatment, stroke and cardiac programs, and a foundation dedicated to community service. Construction of ThedaCare Regional Cancer Center in Appleton is underway. For more information, visit www.thedacare.org or follow ThedaCare on Facebook and Twitter.
