The American health care system is in disrepair. Even in Minnesota, where we have come to expect the best doctors, treatments and research in the world, health care is facing some of the most serious challenges I’ve seen in my career.
At Fairview, where I have worked for more than 18 years, we strive to provide the highest quality health care to every person who needs it. But the current environment – economic challenges, workforce shortages, overcrowding – is making that harder than ever.
These challenges are resulting in significant frustrations for our patients. They are experiencing unprecedented wait times in most phases of health care including in ER waiting rooms, in ER rooms waiting to get a hospital room, in hospital rooms when waiting medically ready to go to nursing homes, group homes or mental health facilities and in scheduling visits in-clinic with their care providers.
For the sake of our ability to deliver care in Minnesota long into the future, we must think differently about how we deliver care. This includes elected officials, care providers, administrators and the community challenging themselves and each other to innovate in ways we never have before.
The proposed merger between Fairview and Sanford Health has been widely covered in the news, and with good reason: Access to high-quality health care services is something everyone cares deeply about. We saw this on display in February at meetings held across the state by Attorney General Keith Ellison.
As many people expressed various viewpoints, I listened intently to those with concerns. Detractors said it will negatively impact health care, but many of those viewpoints were not supported by facts. Those of us working on the front lines see the devastating effects of an already-broken health care system every day.
Lives are at stake if we don’t act now. It is time to stop talking about these problems and pointing fingers and consider all options – including a Fairview/Sanford Health merger – as viable solutions – to be able to provide the health care that Minnesotans expect and deserve.
To fundamentally fix the issues, it is important to understand the economic headwinds facing health care delivery systems.
For many years the costs of delivering health care have been growing faster than the payments for providing care. The price of labor and supplies has increased rapidly while payments from insurers have not. As a result, over 50 percent of hospitals and health systems in the U.S. had a net economic loss in 2022.
As a nonprofit health system, we must generate enough net positive income to update equipment, facilities, and offer new services for patients to improve health outcomes. If we don’t, we won’t survive, a scenario that would make health care access even more difficult and place additional hardships on people across Minnesota who are seeking care.
Collaborating for better patient outcomes is nothing new for Minnesota’s health care industry. When I was a medical student at the University of Minnesota Medical School, I took classes in university-owned buildings and did clinical rotations throughout the Twin Cities, learning from a variety of different providers from different systems including Regions Hospital, North Memorial and HCMC. Collaboration was then, and is now, crucial to the training of Minnesota’s physicians at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
A future Fairview/Sanford organization will not jeopardize that. In fact, it could give medical students an opportunity to practice in every corner of the state – rural and urban, in tribal nations, with aging populations and immigrant populations – in a way the medical school simply cannot do today. I am convinced the medical school’s success would not only continue post-merger, but it would also improve.
The relationship between the University and surrounding health systems has been complicated. To simplify, it’s helpful to understand the facts.
In 1997, Fairview rescued a financially strained university medical center. Through a variety of agreements between the University of Minnesota Medical School, its physician group M Physicians, and Fairview (three distinct entities), M Health Fairview was formed. This collaboration has had an extremely positive impact that I’m very proud of: We opened a specialty COVID hospital at the onset of the pandemic; we were the first system in the U.S. to use a new gene therapy to treat a person for rare metachromatic leukodystrophy; and recently, our university neonatologists helped doctors in Grand Rapids, Minn., safely deliver a premature baby during a snowstorm via Tele-NICU technology. Every day in our hospital I witness Fairview and University physicians working side by side to provide the best care possible for patients. We all want and need this collaboration to continue.
Fairview’s partnership with the University of Minnesota has been a win, for both sides, but most importantly for our patients. I believe a Fairview and Sanford merger will do the same.
It will allow us to pool our resources, improve economies of scale, maintain and expand access, and help us preserve our mission to care for Minnesotans. And I hope the University of Minnesota continues as a partner in our future success
Regardless of what the University decides to do for itself, the truth remains: A combined Fairview/Sanford system will ensure Minnesotans have continued access to world-class, innovative care, and that is something we all should want.
Dr. Dan Frechette is a hospitalist physician and vice president of medical affairs at M Health Fairview Ridges Hospital, Burnsville.
