The Gundersen Health System 15 Years in the Making : A Retrospective on a Path to Success

_ Larger, complex, integrated community health systems are now forming. Those leading integration efforts (typically leaders of health systems) report flying blind, thinking that there is no road map for integration. They’re often unaware there are those that have gone before (“trailblazers” of integration) and their lessons learned are available for guidance. This special section provides a 15-year retrospective of the integration journey of Gundersen Lutheran Health System (now Gundersen Health System). It delves into the challenges of community health systems today, with reference to Gundersen Health System’s approach to these same challenges over the last 15 years. The goal of this article is to provide those on the front end of their integration journey with the benefit of learning from the experience of an integrated community health system that has succeeded with its journey to date and is positioning for its next 15-year run.