APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Three leading health care providers are partnering up to expand services for children in Northeast Wisconsin.
Bellin Health, Children’s Wisconsin and ThedaCare will work closely together to enhance pediatric primary and specialty care to benefit children and adolescents in the region.
“It doesn’t matter what door you walk into you feel as if you are in any one of our three organizations,” said ThedaCare President Imran Andrabi.
“We recognize the growing needs of children and adolescents in that market. It’s a growing region, so it does allow us an opportunity to better address the needs of the kids through close collaboration of our opportunities to work with leading health care organizations in that market,” said Children’s Wisconsin President Peggy Troy. “We do believe that children that we need to bring care closer to home. We know that it is inconvenient to come to the Milwaukee campus for all their needs, so when it makes sense, we want to provide those services up in the market so it’s more convenient for families.”
The partnership allows the independent systems to work closely together, sharing some resources and services.
“A tighter connection with the medical home with family medicine and pediatricians allows us to deliver seamless care across our organizations and improve the overall patient experience,” Troy said. “We will have a greater connectedness, as opposed to a referral at a time. We will be able to integrate care seamlessly between the medical home and a specialty practice.”
“This closer alignment of resources and people and care coordination will immediately begin to provide a positive impact on children and families today, setting the stage now for a healthier tomorrow, which is really important,” said Bellin Health President, Chris Woleske. “They will continue to see the same providers and have that same relationship with the providers they know and trust at the locations that they’re familiar with, and all of the current insurance plans will continue to be accepted.”
“What we all want to focus on is that easy access, that seamless movement within our 3 organizations, and really bringing the strengths of all 3 forward in what people experience at any of our organizations an any given time,” Andrabi added. “The ability to have seamless care, the ability for it to be simple for children and their families, the ability for us to leverage our relationships and our technology, and our ability to talk to one another, really takes all that friction away from people navigating healthcare.”
Officials say the patients’ benefits include:
- Bringing additional pediatric services and specialists to the region to expand access to local, close-to-home care.
- Reducing the need for children and their families to travel outside the region when a higher level of care is needed.
- Consistent, best-practice standards of care across each organization’s care settings in the region.
- Tailored child and adolescent services that meet community-specific needs with the right resources, expertise, skilled providers and clinical staff, technology and more.
- Better and more efficient care through seamless care coordination and tighter alignment across the three systems.
The joint venture will align each partner’s existing primary and pediatric specialty care expertise.
For instance, Bellin and ThedaCare have robust primary care networks that together provide more than 180,000 pediatric care visits with nearly 430 providers across approximately 70 locations throughout the region. Children’s Wisconsin has operated a pediatric hospital, including a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Pediatric Unit, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah since 2001. It also offers dozens of pediatric specialties, including more than 20 in Northeast Wisconsin, and is one of the top-ranked pediatric health systems in the country. Children’s also recently announced plans for a new outpatient clinic representing a significant investment in the region.
A Joint Operating Board with three representatives from each partner organization will govern the joint venture.
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