In the News

At Hennepin Healthcare, that includes recruiting people with no health care experience and placing them in a six-week training program with the Red Cross to get certified as a health care assistant. Tony Campisi, a talent acquisition director at Hennepin Healthcare, characterized the Red Cross training program as a bright spot in recruiting new employees.

“We’re currently having very long wait times in the emergency department — way longer than we would like to see,” said Dr. Daniel Hoody of Hennepin Healthcare.

“Our current reality is that our demand is exceeding the capacity of all hospitals and health systems across the state of Minnesota,” said Jennifer DeCubellis, CEO at Hennepin Healthcare, which operates HCMC in downtown Minneapolis. “The volumes are higher than we have seen across the state of Minnesota in general, both COVID and non-COVID.”

Hennepin Healthcare trauma prevention specialist Julie Philbrook says the issue with many winter coats is the unseen gap they create between the car seat harness and the child.

“I know it has been a really tough two years,” Krishnan Subrahmanian, MD of Hennepin Healthcare said. “This is a moment where we can step out of some of this confusion and gray into clarity and into safety.”

“The problem is not that people can’t focus, it’s that they don’t have control as much, on what they’re focusing on, and when to pull away,” said Dr. Becca Floyd, a clinical psychologist for Hennepin Healthcare.

“There is a concern about flu,” Dr. David Hilden told Adam Carter on the WCCO Morning News. “Most of us will remember or maybe it didn’t across our minds, we barely had flu last year. It was a handful of cases, but it was basically a non-event and that is likely because one, it was a mild flu season to begin with. But two, we weren’t together. We were social distancing and we were masking.”

Riding in an ambulance with paramedic Xander Krohnfeldt, it seems the more agitated his patient gets, the more calm his voice becomes. Krohnfeldt works for Hennepin Emergency Medical Services (EMS), where he provides front line care to people throughout their primary service area in Hennepin County. “A huge portion of the job is being able to talk to people. You’re walking through a crisis with an individual and that varies dramatically from person to person,” said Krohnfeldt.

“We are here for their emergency. Whoever has called us, whether that’s the patient, a family member, or a bystander, we’re here for somebody’s emergency,” said paramedic Becky Kopka. “I don’t make judgments. I understand that I’m there to help them.”

“As you’re getting out of your rig and going up to the apartment, the house, or the side of the road, you try not to get blinders on,” said paramedic Jeremiah Steele.

“We’re there to help,” said Martin Scheerer, Senior Director of EMS at Hennepin Healthcare. “I feel good that we approach each case with compassion and we’re able to help people during their worst days and times.”

“You have to approach it with care, from a trauma-informed care lens and that’s saying, ‘We know something happened to you but there’s nothing wrong with you,’” said Jalilia Abdul-Brown, a senior violence prevention specialist. “Let us help you get back on your feet.”

“If the person doesn’t trust the person who’s treating them, then sometimes people leave [against medical advice],” said Kentral Galloway, the program manager. “When we come in, we start building a relationship with them.”

Hennepin Healthcare started its mobile vaccination clinic in the early months of the pandemic, making home visits. Eighteen months later, they’ve expanded to pop ups.

“I think as word on the street spread about what we were doing, schools (and) head start centers reached out to us,” said Dr. Dawn Martin, a pediatrician at Hennepin Healthcare.

“The school teachers, the school nurses, the social workers — that community is established already, and for that community support to then say, ‘Hey, I’ve got some friends at Hennepin Healthcare. Why don’t you talk to them? That trust then gets extended to us,” said Sheyanga Beecher, a nurse practitioner at Hennepin Healthcare.

“You talk to women who are 85 years old and they can tell you about their labor and their birth because it’s such a powerful experience,” midwife Maggie Pastarr told FOX 9.

“The age distribution is really different,” said Dr. Matthew Prekker, an HCMC emergency and critical care specialist who treated Belen-Perez. “It’s almost all people under 50 that we’re admitting — day after day now.”

“We had many patients at the beginning who had significant co-morbidities but were not eligible,” said Dr. Kate Hust, an internal medicine physician at Hennepin Healthcare. “We certainly see patients at Hennepin who are very sick before the age of 64, and this helps patients make an informed decision.”

“In Minnesota, throughout the state, we are seeing kids hospitalized with COVID, we are seeing kids hospitalized with post-COVID inflammatory condition (MIS-C), and we are seeing kids in the ICUs,” said Dr. Hannah Lichtsinn of Hennepin Healthcare. 

“The two biggest questions we had with this study was, could they get that immune response with a smaller dose, and will it be safe? And I think right now the data suggests it is,” Hennepin Healthcare Pediatrician Dr. Krishnan Subrahmanian says.

“Doula services are needed more than ever given that the experience of childbirth in the U.S. is increasingly lonely and medicalized,” 

“People are having more upper respiratory symptoms with the delta variant and that could be easily confused with a mild cold or allergy symptoms,” said Hennepin Healthcare allergist Dr. John Sweet.

Jessica Vang, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Hennepin Healthcare, speaks to Hmong children about what to expect from the vaccine.

“Our hospital is full of people in the ICU who are unvaccinated, young, people of color and they’re dying from COVID,” Dr. Nneka Sederstrom said. “That’s what we know today. Today the people who dying are unvaccinated. That truth needs to ring true. Staying unvaccinated today means its very likely that tomorrow will not be promised.”

“Put aside your political affiliations and get vaccinated if you love your family and love your community,” said Reggie McAllister of Plymouth. “Just be responsible.”