Steven Inman, MD

Chairman of the Board | Children’s Health Network

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Challenges: The high cost of health care is not affordable for most people and creates significant barriers in access to care that are not equitable. The projected wave of newly unemployed caused by the pandemic will only exacerbate this problem.

Strategies: Covid19 has not caused our problems, but has accelerated the realization that the system of health care in this country is broken. At Children’s Hospitals and Clinics and the Children’s Health Network, extreme revenue shortfalls created by the pandemic have forced us to re-evaluate every possible cost center for efficiency. However, our institutions’ work is not enough. We need a coherent strategy on health care insurance and policy at the national level to achieve a desired outcome. The sooner our elected leaders come to this realization, the better off we all will be.

Julia Joseph-Di Caprio, MD, MPH

Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer | UCare

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Challenges: The COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd drive home the profound inequities in health care. Further, this year demonstrates that while it is important to address the social factors that drive adverse health outcomes, unless we dismantle racist structures, policies, and procedures in health care, we will not achieve health equity.

Strategies: UCare uses data, analytics, and information from members, providers, and communities to more deeply understand the social and other risk factors impacting our members. Informed by this information, we implement strategies—in partnership with members, providers, and communities—that improve health, advance equity, and drive structural change.

Patrick Kelly, MPH, MS, FACH

Director | Minneapolis VA Health Care System

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Challenges: In Federal Health Care, the recruitment and retention of health care providers remains an ongoing challenge. This is especially acute in our most highly rural areas.  This can impact our ability to provide timely, patient centered care.

Strategies: We have established a variety of arrangements to address this gap, including telemedicine, community care networks and an extensive travel support infrastructure to our main Hospital to name a few.  Our goal is to provide Veteran’s, our nation’s most deserving citizens, the very best quality of care, simply obtained, close to where they live.  They have earned nothing less.

Scott Ketover, MD, AGAF, FASGE

President and CEO | MNGI Digestive Health

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Challenges: All things related to Covid-19, protecting and caring for patients amid restrictions for procedures, acquiring PPE for staff/physicians, the financial impact of fewer patient visits, and concerns about delayed care. Increased healthcare needs for aging population, adversarial stance between providers and payers with existing fee-for-service models, and challenges of transitioning to fee-for-value systems without creating barriers to care or revenue implications.

Strategies: Learning and listening while searching internally and externally for new and different approaches. Maintaining a diverse staff and leadership, valuing everyone’s ideas, and engaging staff with continued education and outside professional opportunities. Creation of a long-term strategic plan imagining what is possible, adapting it to the short-term challenges.

Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, FAAN

Founder and Director | Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing

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Challenges: The pandemic and systemic racism have accentuated long-standing disparities that reflect unequal access to care and lack of investment in mental health, prevention, and comprehensive whole-person care. Scant attention is focused on social, behavioral, and economic factors that contribute to the well-being of people and communities.

Strategies: The Bakken Center’s mission is to advance the health and well-being of people, organizations, and communities. We focus on high priority areas of research, including chronic pain. Academic courses prepare students to succeed in interprofessional team-based environments. We co-create innovative and sustainable care models with organizations.

Gayle Kvenvold

President and CEO| LeadingAge  Minnesota

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Challenges: The COVID-19 pandemic. No segment of the population has faced higher risks than those served in our congregate settings. In addition to a heightened focus on infection control, the pandemic has underscored the need for new solutions to address the extreme shortage of direct care workers in our field, rethink senior living physical plant design, embrace new technologies, including telehealth, combat social isolation and address the social determinants of health.

Strategies: Preparing for a post-COVID future that better addresses integrated service delivery, Medicare managed care, disease mitigation and investments in home-based services to enable seniors to live independently as long as possible. We must usher in a new paradigm for service delivery to meet the explosive growth ahead in the 65+ population.

Mark Linzer, MD, MACP

Director | Hennepin Healthcare Institute for Professional Worklife

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Challenges: We oversee worklife and wellness for 1,000 physicians, advanced practice clinicians, and psychologists. Stress and burnout are of tremendous importance for clinicians and their patients. Ensuring health equity is of equal importance; our programs seek to create a safe, harmonious, and equitable environment where workloads are accomplishable and all feel heard and valued.

Strategies: IPW partnered with the AMA to create a brief “Coping with COVID” survey to assess trends in health care worker stress locally and nationally. We use the data to work with health systems to achieve stress reduction. At Hennepin Healthcare, we collaborate with human resources and education leaders, and work closely with the psychiatry department to develop mental health support programs.

Rick Long

President and CEO | Center for Diagnostic Imaging

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Challenges: The biggest near-term challenge is the COVID-19 pandemic and dealing with the multitude of challenges created by it. In the long term, the challenge is to continue driving value from each dollar expended by purchasers of health care while maintaining high standards.

Strategies: We ensure that we have the safest environment for delivering diagnostic imaging services. We continue finding ways to provide care efficiently without sacrificing quality or disenfranchising patients. We believe the most important aspect of this is to fill the company with great people, particularly those that are on the front lines caring for our patients. They ensure we will get there the right way. Investments in artificial intelligence and other technology will help to support these goals.