ThedaCare: System Strategy

STM Group Assignment Case Analysis

2/17/2014

Submitted By: - Group 4 Bhavya Singla B13080 Fatima Dilruba B13085 Megha Sharma K B13096 Nishchay Bhalla B13098 Priyajeev Kumar B13102 Puskar Pandey B13103 Rajaram P R B13105 Reeplica Sarma B13107 Ripudaman Singh B13108

Question 1:
Evolution of the approach of ThedaCare towards cost reduction and differentiation over time Thedacare's mission was "to improve the health of the community" and they pursued it by providing better quality services. Their initiative "Touchpoint" did significant improvements to operations and thus patient care. IDCOP significantly improved patient and staff satisfaction and also revenues. Thedacare's strategy was to improve quality of their service and also patient and staff satisfaction. They strived to achieve a lean system with reduced patient waiting time. They sold Touchpoint in order to focus on their healthcare business displayed their commitment towards quality and not only profit. Thedacare Inpatient System was a big achievement for the company, bringing in significant improvements in account receivables and simplifying patient registration. They wanted to provide only the best service and that's why divided some departments between the two major Thedacare hospitals even at the risk of losing patients. Theda care improved customer satisfaction by reducing the gaps in patient care reducing the time required for appointments and dramatically reduced lead time in its orthopaedic plus initiative. One point to note is that even after such changes we can see from exhibit 4 that for similar number of admissions and outpatient visits the expenses of Theda Clark and AMC are more compared to St Elizabeth's. It can be seen that Thedacare is an innovative organization which focussed on quality and easing the process for its patients which resulted in patient satisfaction and thus a better reputation. It reported very high employee satisfaction and thus is safe to assume was able to attract and retain better physicians which would have been a big strength for Thedacare.

Question 2:
Root causes of the resistance by the physicians against different improvement projects ThedaCare had adopted lean process engineering to improve the quality of service provided to patients and at the same time reducing cost of service. This met with a lot of resistance from the physicians as they were not sure if ideas adopted from other industries could be implemented in healthcare. In the pilot project, ThedaCare first taught a select group of physicians the basics of lean process engineering and allowed them to propagate it to the other physicians. Although the project improved business and clinical performance, it faced stiff resistance from most of the physicians working for ThedaCare. They questioned the applicability of techniques generated in the auto industry (Toyota) in healthcare. Also, the terminologies used in lean process engineering were unfamiliar to the physicians and so, they had doubts on the relevance of the terms. Some of the

physicians might have even found it offensive to take lessons from assembly line workers of the auto industry.