ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value
Created in 2008 by ThedaCare president/CEO emeritus John Toussaint, MD, the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value is working to close the gap between value creation and marketplace reward. The Center hopes to create a healthcare marketplace that rewards providers for delivering value measured in terms of highest quality at the lowest cost. It is targeting these issues by publishing the framework by which organizations transform themselves using healthcare LEAN, with the goal of making every person in a health care organization a daily problem solver.

The Center will teach transformation leadership using the lessons and first hand experience gained from ThedaCare's and others' quality journeys. It shares collective insight on the best ways to unite employers, providers and payers to develop new models of care and payment that result in greater efficiency and expertise for healthcare providers and greater value for purchasers and patients.

ThedaCare
ThedaCare is a community health system consisting of four hospitals: Appleton Medical Center, Theda Clark Medical Center, New London Medical Center, and Riverside Medical Center. The ThedaCare family also includes ThedaCare Physicians, ThedaCare Behavioral Health, ThedaCare Laboratories, a health solutions company for employees, a home care and senior services division, and three additional joint ventures.

It is the third largest health care employer in Wisconsin and the largest employer in the state's second largest economic market - Northeast Wisconsin - with nearly 5,300 employees. Through its nearly 100-year history, ThedaCare has woven itself into the very fabric of the communities it serves. For employees, ThedaCare offers an environment that not only welcomes but also encourages innovative thinking and fresh approaches to today’s health care challenges.

Q. How should viewers use this DVD?

A. We suggest that leadership teams watch the video as a group to discuss what they have seen and how it can apply to their own organizations. The video can be viewed by a senior leadership team as part of its lean management education. Mid-level lean implementers may wish to use the DVD as a way of introducing senior leaders to the active role that senior leaders play at leading lean organizations like ThedaCare.

Viewers of the DVD can register online to access downloadable materials that supplement the DVD, and they can also submit questions that will be answered via a text response or video.

Q. What was the concept behind making the DVD? Why was strategy deployment selected as the subject rather that a different lean tool used at ThedaCare?

A. Strategy deployment was chosen as a theme because it is an advanced lean management practice that ties together other aspects of lean, including process improvement and performance measurement. “It’s the process by which we are able to connect all 5,400 people in ThedaCare to deliver better patient value,” said John Toussaint, M.D., CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and ThedaCare CEO emeritus.

Strategy deployment is being used by more and more members of our Healthcare Value Leaders Network. Many members have learned about the methodology from site visits to ThedaCare. To our knowledge, there are no videos on the market about strategy deployment for any industry, including healthcare or manufacturing.

Q. Is strategy deployment a top-down process or is there opportunity for feedback from the frontlines and middle management?

A. Strategy deployment is both top-down and bottom-up. “It’s a process that’s starts at the top, goes to the frontline, and then comes back to the top,” Toussaint explained. “So we have a process by which we are having ‘catchball’ back and forth between the top of the organization and the front line of the organization.”

True north objectives are set through a dialogue with managers at different levels of the organization. This back and forth iterative process is often called “catchball.” The setting of priorities, measures, and improvement activities are also part of that dialogue. Generally, goals are set top-down (with catchball feedback) and improvement ideas are bottom-up (again with catchball).

Q. What are the connections among strategy deployment, A3s, value-stream maps, and kaizen events?

A. Strategy deployment helps prioritize and align improvement activities such as A3s, value stream assessments, and kaizen events. This alignment helps prevent random acts of kaizen that do not have the right impact for patients and the organization.

Links with relevant information:

Healthcare Value Network

Learn about how member organizations benefit from the Healthcare Value Network, a network healthcare organizations share their lean methods and experiences to accelerating each organization's "lean journey.

Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit

Real leaders and practitioners from the Healthcare Value Network share their successes and challenges at this intense two-day event.

On the Mend (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2010)

In On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry John Toussaint, MD, former CEO of ThedaCare, and Roger A. Gerard, PhD, its chief learning officer, candidly describe the triumphs and stumbles of a seven-year journey to lean healthcare.

• White Paper: Strategy Deployment
  A new whitepaper from the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value tells the story of the "strategy deployment" management method at three healthcare organizations: ThedaCare, Group Health, and St. Boniface Hospital. All three are members of the Healthcare Value Network.

Network

• Healthcare Value Network
  Interested in learning how to apply lean thinking to healthcare? Learn more about the new partnership between the Lean Enterprise Institute and the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. Also learn about how to become a member of the Healthcare Value Network, a network of member organizations that have joined to collaborate and share their lean methods and experiences, accelerating each organization's "lean journey" and allowing each member to progress more quickly and more effectively than they could on their own.

Event

• Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit
  Interested in learning how to apply lean thinking to healthcare? Join the Lean Enterprise Institute and the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value for an intimate, intense two-day event. Come to meet, listen to, and learn from (and with) the pioneers of lean. Real leaders and practitioners from the Healthcare Value Network will share their learnings, including successes and challenges.