Health Affairs Blog-High-Quality, Low-Cost Care: An Interview With Gundersen-Lutheran CEO Jeff Thompson

by John Iglehart and Chris Fleming

In terms of “bending the cost curve,” health-care providers in La Crosse, WI., have clearly demonstrated the ability to deliver high-qualty care for comparatively low costs. La Crosse was one of ten communities featured at a July 21 conference in Washington, D.C. titled “How Do They Do That? Low-Cost, High-Quality Health Care in America.” The conference was organized by four nationally noted health care improvement experts: Don Berwick, Elliott Fisher, Atul Gawande, and Mark McClellan.

But that is only part of what has grabbed national headlines for this community that borders on the Mississippi River in Northwest Wisconsin. La Crosse has become embroiled in a national controversy over end-of-life planning that has swirled around the health-care reform debate. La Crosse’s largest provider of care—the Gundersen-Lutheran Health System—is a pioneer in ensuring that the care elderly patients receive in their final months complies with their wishes. About 95% of the elderly citizens of La Crosse have signed advance directives on end-of-life care.

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