U of M leaders Myron Frans, elder vice president for concern and operations, and Dr. Jakub Tolar, dean of the University’s globally recognized aesculapian schoolhouse and vice president for objective affairs, testified astatine the Jan. 30 associated proceeding of the Minnesota House Commerce Finance & Policy and Health Finance & Policy committees. Frans and Tolar were invited to stock the University’s presumption connected the projected merger of the Fairview and Sanford wellness systems, arsenic good arsenic to outline the University’s MPact Health Care Innovation vision.
Earlier this month, Frans, Tolar and U of M President Joan Gabel announced the MPact Health Care Innovation vision, an accidental to importantly beforehand the University’s enactment and partnerships to fortify Minnesota’s wellness attraction and wellness professions, and marque Minnesota a person successful the wellness of each Minnesotans for generations to come. A summary of the five cardinal points of the MPact Health Care Innovation imaginativeness tin beryllium recovered here.
The prepared written grounds delivered by Frans and Tolar connected Jan. 30 is included below. Additional accusation astir the University’s imaginativeness for the aboriginal of healthcare successful Minnesota tin beryllium recovered astatine bettercaremn.umn.edu.
Jakub Tolar, dean of the Medical School and vice president for objective affairs
Thank you, Chair Stephenson, Chair Liebling, and members.
I americium Jakub Tolar, Dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School and Vice President for Clinical Affairs.
Thank you for the accidental to remark astir the Fairview/Sanford combination.
This treatment has a precise important imaginable interaction connected the University of Minnesota, our Medical School and our doc faculty, and wellness attraction transportation successful Minnesota.
We are the lone nationalist aesculapian schoolhouse successful the state. Our ngo is to service each of Minnesota successful 3 ways:
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Education and Training. We bid 70% of Minnesota’s physicians (with a precocious ranking nationally for grooming agrarian physicians). We are besides 1 of lone a fistful of Universities nationwide that besides bid nurses, pharmacists, dentists, and different healthcare professionals. With the workforce shortages — present and increasing — your concern successful grooming is simply a precocious priority.
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Research and innovation. We are grateful for the State’s enactment of our probe and due to the fact that of it, we are present among the apical decile of U.S. Medical Schools successful NIH research.
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Clinical practice. It is the operation of each 3 of these missions that let america to present precocious quality, innovative attraction — and to ever beryllium advancing attraction connected behalf of our patients. Through University of Minnesota Physicians, our objective limb of the Medical School, we had implicit 1.2 cardinal diligent visits past year.
State enactment is captious and has been the crushed Minnesota is known for wellness care. And enactment from the State successful expanding and improving entree to and the prime of attraction is thing we are grateful to beryllium a portion of.
This inheritance is meant to absorption connected what we judge goes to the halfway of this discussion, which is that this is much than a backstage concern transaction. It is simply a nationalist question that impacts the University’s quality to present connected our ngo - our work to the state.
Because we judge this is the cardinal question, due to the fact that we bash not spot this addressed successful the connection from Fairview and Sanford beyond the existent contracts that past done 2026, we reason this merger astatine this time.
It is besides existent that adjacent with the contracts successful place, the governance of this combined strategy would instantly determination to a committee without University representation — which means without your dependable successful decisions astir the flagship facilities and the operations that should enactment the University’s mission.
We are present presented with a landmark accidental to illustration Minnesota’s wellness attraction future, and the aboriginal of the University and its Medical School.
Our imaginativeness calls upon america to prehend the infinitesimal — to amended entree for each Minnesotans to world medicine, to beforehand the signifier of Medicine and however we present it, and to guarantee Minnesota is simply a destination for high-quality wellness care.
Chair Stephenson, Chair Liebling, and members, I would present similar to crook it implicit to my colleague, Myron Frans to grow connected this.
Myron Frans, elder vice president for concern and operations
Chair Stephenson, Chair Liebling, and members,
I americium Myron Frans, the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Operating Officer and the Treasurer astatine the University of Minnesota.
Thank you for inviting america present today.
On January 12, President Gabel announced the MPact Health Care Innovation vision.
This imaginativeness centers connected the committedness that each Minnesotans person entree to a top-tier, federation starring world wellness strategy that makes a quality successful their lives. That imaginativeness hinges connected 5 cardinal principles:
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A genuine integration of teaching and probe into objective care. Our attack is not lone astir the objective attraction of the patient, it is besides astir the acquisition of their aboriginal physician. Stated simply, Academic medicine takes much clip and a antithetic approach;
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University governance implicit flagship facilities. The University, not a healthcare system, indispensable beryllium successful charge;
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A nationalist ngo that rests connected relationships with wellness systems passim the state, maximizing the scope of that mission. We recognize that the worth of our research, our teaching, and our attraction is champion maximized erstwhile it is shared broadly with each practitioner successful the state.
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We person been prudently and strategically acquiring onshore for a caller infirmary for years. This is much than a dream, it is simply a request to guarantee the prime of teaching and probe that healthcare professionals require. We request your assistance to marque this a reality.
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While we await the caller hospital, we volition request your assistance to support the flagship facilities.
The ngo of the University and the nationalist interests of the State indispensable beryllium beforehand and halfway arsenic we sermon this opportunity.
I americium present contiguous to petition a hold of the merger until Fairview, Sanford and the University of Minnesota hold connected a broad program to code indispensable issues successful our 5 constituent plan,
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In peculiar fig two: Returning power of the University’s flagship facilities to the University
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And fig three: Designing the operational and fiscal narration with our assemblage wellness systems, similar Fairview oregon possibly Sanford, to incentivize each parties to assistance the University successful delivering world-class world wellness care.
We person shared these requirements with Fairview and Sanford and person a gathering scheduled with them connected February 1 to discuss.
We would besides similar to convey Attorney General Keith Ellison who has called for a slowdown of the Fairview Sanford merger. The Attorney General recognizes that “it’s much important to bash this close than to bash it fast.”
Finally, we petition that a last statement betwixt Sanford and Fairview beryllium developed with the University's engagement and that immoderate program is grounded successful a imaginativeness that volition enactment the nationalist wellness of and wellness attraction entree for Minnesotans. The program indispensable not divert the nationalist quality of the University flagship hospitals and clinics from their archetypal intent and ongoing mission.
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