APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – ThedaCare wants to know how the community is feeling about the potential merger of two of its hospitals.
President and CEO Dr. Dean Gruner stopped by a Copper Rock Coffee Company in Appleton to speak with the public Thursday. He says combining their Appleton and Neenah campuses will dramatically improve the quality of care.
“We have services that are specialized at (both campuses). The general public may not be aware of that and if you’re in a crisis situation and you’re acutely ill, you’re just going to go to the nearest place but you may not go to the place where we have our specialized services.”
Gruner says there are several changing needs in healthcare that would be addressed by combining both hospitals.
“We have to have more of what we call negative pressure rooms; more ability to deal with sanitary waste issues, if it’s an Ebola patient, than our hospitals currently have.”
Another changing need is the lack of intensive care unit rooms.
He says the public’s input on the hospital’s future are very important.
“We want to understand all of their current concerns and ideas and then also all their hopes and dreams for the future.”
ThedaCare is planning several more coffee house chats throughout the Fox Cities in the coming months.
