Jodi Harpstead, MBA

Commissioner | DHS

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Challenges: We need to continue to address the increasing costs of health care facing our aging population. One solution is to finally truly incorporate the social determinants of health into the work. And we need to work to be sure the Medicaid patient gets the same high-quality health care as the Medicare or private insurance patient.

Strategies: We have laid out a new schedule for contracting for Medicaid and MinnesotaCare for the next three years and plan to incorporate social determinants and health equity into the process. The COVID-19 pandemic has also taught us all that public health is tied to individual health, and we are thinking through what the implications of that are for our health care system as we go forward.

Dionne Hart, MD, DFAPA, FASAM

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry | Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science

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Challenges: Patients with mental disorders often deferred treatment due to a lack of access. These shortages are now exacerbated as Minnesotans seek treatment for chronic conditions as well as pandemic-related mental health problems. To meet the need, we are challenged to develop permanent solutions to expand telemedicine and broadband. Furthermore, an increase in the number of substance use treatment programs is necessary to ensure timely access to treatment.

Strategies: Through multiple physician associations, I am involved in efforts to draft model legislation to permanently expand access to psychiatrists through telemedicine by phone and video.

Randy Hemann, MD

Chief Medical Officer | Olmsted Medical Center

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Challenges: One of our biggest challenges is achieving the needed change to the value/cost-of-care equation. Health care is delivered to patients one touch at a time. This means that we need to empower our teams to move those touches to and from the patient efficiently, regardless of the patient’s social-economic status. This involves not only primary care providers, specialists, nurses, and pharmacists, it also involves the many others who work within the organization.

Strategies: We are directing our financial and staffing resources to optimize our teams and bolster systems to support the accessibility and personal care our patients expect of us. This has always been our work. However, it is especially important during times of disruption.

Peter J. Henry, MD

Chief Medical Officer | Essentia Health

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Challenges: We need to maintain a resilient workforce and strong physician and APP leadership team in an ever-changing health care environment. Covid-19 has added increased stress to an already very demanding job.

Strategies: We are developing focused onboarding to identify potential future leaders and to formalize leadership succession planning. We are also developing a structured curriculum for leaders utilizing a Dyad model, which allows administration and the medical staff to be equally represented in decision-making, and attempts to eliminate “we/they” thinking. In addition, we are designing programs to help physicians and APPs understand that their participation in leadership is not only a privilege but key to moving health care in a better direction.

David C. Herman, MD

CEO | Essentia Health

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Challenges: Health care is challenged to respond to a global pandemic while partnering to address social structures that lead to poor health outcomes. Great opportunity lies in broadening our actions with partners in our communities to bolster the social and public health initiatives that can provide better and more affordable health outcomes for the communities we are privileged to serve.

Strategies: Essentia Health is fortunate to be endowed with values from our founders that have served us well in the past and have moved us to the future. Longstanding community partnerships in housing and actions to address food insecurity, as well as significant investments in telemedicine, have provided a stable platform for rapid innovation to quickly respond positively to the challenges of today and the future.

Tim Hernandez, MD

CEO | Entira Family Clinics

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Challenges: Our greatest challenge in health care is that we need to do more with less. We can’t continue to “overgraze our pasture,” as Dr. Don Berwick references in The Tragedy of the Commons. Rather, we must all strive to be better stewards of our health care dollar.

Strategies: At Entira Family Clinics we are looking for partners who want to participate in transformative change. We are redesigning our care delivery model to be more efficient and provide better primary care access. The partners we seek must share our vision to reduce costs for our community. If we are able to reduce waste and make the necessary changes to our business models to provide value and not just more revenue to our organizations, we will be successful.

John L. Hick, MD

Medical Director of Emergency Preparedness and Deputy EMS Medical Director | Hennepin Healthcare

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Challenges: Growing inequities create a disproportionate burden on our communities of color; our rural and immigrant communities; and those with limited resources, behavioral health issues, or chemical dependency. The private sector cannot be relied upon to address these issues, so it will take a major public commitment and public-private partnerships.

Strategies: Hennepin Healthcare is uniquely positioned to advocate for and implement policy and strategies that will improve access to health care and improve health care delivery for our most vulnerable at the same time as we deliver world-class trauma and critical care to all our patients.

David R. Hilden, MD, MPH

Vice President Medical Affairs / President of the Medical Staff | Hennepin Healthcare

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Challenges: People of color, poor folks, people with substance use disorders, those with mental health conditions, recent immigrants, and LGBTQ people face systemic barriers to accessing health care. We also face growing skepticism about science in our nation and a collective failure to use the science we have to promote healthy communities.

Strategies: At Hennepin Healthcare, we are having honest conversations about inequities, particularly around systemic racism, and engaging in self-reflection about how to do better. We are trying to become partners with the communities we serve to dismantle barriers to care and to become that trusted source of scientifically sound and person-centered care.