In the News

An eye-opening experience for teenagers in the Twin Cities is coming to a close.  Twenty interns spent six weeks shadowing workers, nurses and doctors with Hennepin Healthcare. They learned about x-rays, emergency medicine, dermatology and much more.

“It’s a good opportunity to know what’s in the hospital — what a day in the doctor’s life is,” said Albert Omboga. “This has been the most life-changing academic or enriching thing I’ve done in my whole life,” said Stella Wright.

Before RISE was launched in 2019, Dr. Katie Thorsness said, “I saw a lot of physicians, oftentimes too late. For various reasons they were worried about seeking treatment. As a psychiatrist I could hear how much they were suffering in silence.”

Dr. Stacene Maroushek of Hennepin Healthcare says it is expected to be extra tough on kids.

“There’s just data now coming out of the southern hemisphere. They have a peak that’s about two months before most of their normal peak,” Maroushek said. “And so if we translated that to the United States and to Minnesota, what that would mean instead of having maybe peak flu season in January/February, you might be looking at October/November.”

“There’s not even an exact amount, although a good place to start is that old myth of eight cups a day,” said Dr. David Hilden, internal medicine at Hennepin Healthcare.

It was supposed to be a day for Dr. Ryan Fey to relax. The Hennepin Healthcare trauma surgeon got out of the operating room early on July 20, so he drove out west of the Twin Cities to his farmland. He planned to check on his bees.

Dr. Hannah Lichtsinn with Hennepin Healthcare says it’s important to know the symptoms of Monkey pox, which has been declared a global health emergency.

“The COVID vaccines like any other vaccine don’t prevent infection 100% of the time. What they’re really designed to do specifically with these COVID vaccines is prevent a severe and big illness,” Hennepin Healthcare Internal Medicine Clinic Director Dr. Kate Hust says.

A level one trauma surgeon was in the right place at the right time after he was behind a man who crashed into the back of a truck carrying utility poles.

“It was pretty obvious it was bad. Once I saw him crash, I ran up to the truck,” said Dr. Ryan Fey.

We took those questions to Dr. Gavin Bart, the Addiction Medicine Division Director at Hennepin Healthcare. Dr. Bart says people will feel the effects.

“It depends on your level of tolerance. Go slowly and wait until you know how it’s going to affect you,” Bart said.

“Really what’s hard on our body is the change in temp,” said Dr. James Miner, Chair of Emergency Medicine at Hennepin Healthcare. He has seen dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke show up locally this summer.

Mothers are more confident at this point in the pandemic, but early on some were asking for long-term contraception before they left the hospital with their newborns, said Fernanda Honebrink, a nurse-midwife with Hennepin Healthcare. “Everybody was afraid about what was going to happen to them.”

“We need to be a part of the change that needs to take place,” Anthony Campisi, manager of talent acquisition at Hennepin Healthcare told FOX 9. Campisi says that right now, diversity is a priority. “We’re at 34% diversity within the organization right now, but we know that’s not enough. So we’re trying to be creative and do whatever we can to get people interested in careers in health care.”

Officials say he had a known history of exercising in sauna-like conditions, something HCMC’s Dr. James Miner says is very concerning. 

“Professional athletes have specific regimens that have gotten them to the elite level that they’re at, that I can’t comment on, but for most of us it’s really not a good idea,” said Dr. Miner, HCMC’s Chair of Emergency Medicine, and Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

HealthLeaders strategy editor, Melanie Blackman, interviews Meghan Walsh, MD, MPH, FACP, chief academic officer for Hennepin Healthcare, a level I trauma center in downtown Minneapolis. She talks about the tough topic of gun violence, the importance of community, and shares leadership insights and advice.

“As it gets worse and worse, you end up getting a little confused, not thinking quite straight and you can get very, very sick,” said 

Dr. Hannah Lichtsinn interviewed.

“This [study] shows we still have a ways to go in terms of moving the needle, especially for populations that are the most unstable,” said Dr. Katherine Diaz Vickery, a family medicine doctor and executive director of Hennepin County’s Health Care for the Homeless program, and one of the study’s primary authors. “People experiencing homelessness and people in jail need access to trusted health care providers who can offer them support, choices and time to decide what vaccines are best to protect them from the severe consequences of COVID-19.”

The study’s authors — including researchers at the University of Minnesota, Hennepin Healthcare and several of the state’s largest private health systems — stopped short of making policy recommendations.

Christine Hill, a spokeswoman for HCMC in Minneapolis, said late Sunday afternoon that the hospital had treated a couple of patients with heat-related illnesses.

People must drink plenty of fluids, stay indoors when possible and be cognizant of the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, said Dr. Andrew Laudenbach, an emergency physician at HCMC. He urged people without access to air conditioning to find places to cool down and to check on relatives and the elderly, particularly those who live alone.

This week, in the wake of recent mass shootings, leaders from Minnesota hospitals and health systems came together to declare gun violence a public health crisis. Sunday morning, we heard from Hennepin Healthcare CEO Jennifer DeCubellis on the declaration.

Hennepin Healthcare, which operates HCMC in Minneapolis, fell below the Star Tribune median last year with an operating margin of 2.2%. Patient volumes in most areas have not returned to pre-COVID levels, so the medical center has been forced to cut costs, said Derrick Hollings, the chief financial officer.

“We’re still not back to what I would consider to be our normal trend line,” he said.