John Toussaint, MD
John Toussaint, MD, Founder & President
As the Center’s founder and president, John Toussaint, MD, has the experience and passion to be a driving force in creating healthcare value. From 2000–2008, Dr. Toussaint served as president and chief executive officer of ThedaCare, Inc., a community-owned, four-hospital health system including twenty-one physician clinics, as well as home health capabilities, senior care facilities, hospice care and behavioral health. ThedaCare is the largest employer in Northeast Wisconsin with nearly 5,400 employees, serving an eight-county region.
During his tenure as president and CEO of ThedaCare, Dr. Toussaint introduced the ThedaCare Improvement System (TIS), which is derived from the Toyota Production system. This model of continuous improvement helped save millions of dollars in healthcare costs by reducing patient errors, improving outcomes and delivering better quality care at a higher value.
Under Dr. Toussaint’s watch, ThedaCare’s revenue grew two and a half times. The organization received multiple quality awards including the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s No. 1 ranking for HEDIS® measures two years in a row and has been using electronic medical records since 1997. ThedaCare was a leader in introducing an Electronic Medical Records system. ThedaCare ranks near the top in Wisconsin Collaborative for Health Care Quality (WCHQ) physician’s public reporting organization measures every year and has been the National Consumer Research winner in the Fox Valley market for five years in a row.
Prior to his role as president and CEO, Dr. Toussaint served ThedaCare in many capacities including chief of medicine for the combined Appleton Hospital Medical Staff, and secretary of the board of directors. He also was secretary of Novus Health Group and a member of the Appleton Medical Center board. From 1994 to 2000, he served as ThedaCare’s chief medical officer. Dr. Toussaint also has served as president of the Touchpoint Health Plan board of directors (formerly known as UnitedHealth of Wisconsin HMO), and as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. He was the founding chairman of WCHQ, which publicly reports on the performance of physicians in Wisconsin.
Presently, he is chairman of the Wisconsin Health Information Organization; a public-private partnership centered on reporting provider efficiency using a centralized claims database derived from the major payers in the state. In 2005, Dr. Toussaint was appointed to the Institute of Medicine’s committee on pay for performance for physicians, as well as to Governor Doyle’s e-Health and Patient Safety Board.
ThedaCare and Dr. Toussaint’s work have been featured in Health Affairs, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Modern Health Care, and Health Management Technology. Additionally, Dr. Toussaint is asked to speak all over the world on LEAN and the topics of quality and efficiency in health care. He has been the keynote speaker at health conferences in Canada, Australia, Singapore, and most recently, the 2009 LEAN Health Care Transformation Summit in London, England. He has been invited to speak and participate on expert panels for The Brookings Institute and the Institute of Medicine in 2009.
Dr. Toussaint received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Cornell College, and earned his medical degree from the University of Iowa. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Iowa, Iowa Methodist program. Dr. Toussaint is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He resides in Appleton, Wis.
