ThedaCare (FTCH North) GME Development

Project Summary:

The goal of creating residency programs at ThedaCare is to provide an excellent educational and training experience for residents that in turn will provide quality patient care to the Fox Valley community with both faculty physicians and residents continuously learning and expanding their knowledge and skills. In addition, by creating high-quality residency programs, a pipeline will be created for graduating residents to stay in Wisconsin and at ThedaCare in the community-based setting and practice medicine. There will also be consideration for community and rural fellowships where there is community need, and ThedaCare has the relevant expertise to do so. Such fellowships include the following subspecialties: addiction medicine; community oncology; geriatrics; hospice and palliative medicine; and rural surgery. Wisconsin is facing a physician shortage and community-based training programs are designed to deliver trainees that are more likely to stay within the communities where they have trained.

Although the creation of the ThedaCare residency programs go beyond the three-years of the AHW-funded project, the goal is to use these funds to create quality residency programs within

the Fox Valley with adequate personnel and resources. Increasing residency training programs in non-teaching hospitals are proven to have better patient outcomes and improves the mortality rate without significantly affecting other quality measures. Starting residency programs within the ThedaCare healthcare system aligns with the system's overall mission to improve the health and well-being of the communities it serves, empowering individuals to live their unique, best lives as well as being aligned with one of AHW’s missions of improving health of the people of Wisconsin.