U regents: Minnesota health care deserves a better deal

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Children in a school van running off a country road suddenly needing emergency medical care. A groundbreaking clinical trial ensuring that a beloved family member is at the Thanksgiving table. A physician returning to her hometown to help provide much-needed access to health care in her rural community.

All across the state, the University of Minnesota Medical School and its graduates are answering the call when both the everyday and unthinkable happen. But the ability to ensure that this care will exist 10 years from now is at significant risk.

The University of Minnesota is committed to negotiating clinical agreements that incentivize high-quality outcomes for patients, ensure adequate resources for education, and invest in the equipment and facilities needed to deliver world-class care. Recently the leadership of University of Minnesota Physicians (UMP) and Fairview Health Services announced a proposed agreement that falls far short of these goals. UMP, a management services company that is separate from the university, negotiated this deal on behalf of the university without having the authority to do so and without broad input from the Medical School’s faculty. We’re not just disappointed, we’re alarmed. As a result, in a resolution passed unanimously on Nov. 13, the University of Minnesota Board of Regents chose to take several actions to remedy this serious and unacceptable situation.

The proposed deal puts the interests of a single regional provider above other providers and Minnesotans, and severely handcuffs the university’s ability to provide ongoing medical education and conduct lifesaving research. The proposed deal impacts not just the clinical practice of the university’s faculty physicians, but also our teaching, research and statewide community outreach work. There are far-reaching implications for all of our health sciences schools — nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, public health and veterinary medicine — entities that had no input into this agreement because the university was purposefully excluded from the discussions.

As one of America’s leading research universities, the University of Minnesota brings together comprehensive health sciences and related expertise that is unmatched across the country, training 70% of health care professionals in the state. These are irreplaceable resources, critical to sustaining and improving the health of all Minnesotans.

Because our responsibility is to the entire state, the University of Minnesota is committed to fostering collaboration not only with Fairview, but with providers in the Twin Cities and throughout greater Minnesota. It’s our collective responsibility to ensure that patients across Minnesota benefit from the medical education, lifesaving care and groundbreaking research we provide for generations to come.

We want a mediation process that brings all parties to the table equitably, and we remain committed to reaching an agreement that ensures our doctors have a place to practice, our future doctors have a place to learn, and patients can be cared for not just in 2027 when the current agreement expires, but for decades to come.

In a profession where practitioners pledge to “do no harm,” we cannot fail Minnesotans at this critical moment.