Local health care leaders convene at Chamber Growth Breakfast

For several months, there have been grumblings throughout the community that something negative has been happening with health care in Owatonna — and the rumors have largely been pointing blame at alleged friction at the Allina and Mayo campus.

On Thursday, leaders from the two locally established systems, along with a leader from the newcomer clinic set to open next year, put those rumors to rest, with the overwhelming message of health care being a team sport.

During the Owatonna Chamber Growth Breakfast, attendees had a chance to hear from Owatonna Hospital President Whitney Johnson (part of Allina Health), Mayo Clinic Health System — Owatonna Lead Physician Dr. Jason Wray-Raabolle and Olmsted Medical Center COO Rob Cunningham. The trio each gave a short presentation of what is currently in the works locally at their respective companies, and then sat together for a Q&A panel addressing Owatonna’s changing health care system.

With “disruption” being a local buzzword for health care systems, Johnson immediately addressed some of the key changes happening at the hospital in the upcoming months that are contributing to those disruptions, but he explained why they are long-term beneficial for overall care in Owatonna.

“In June, we will be transitioning our hospitalist team. Hospitalists are providers in the hospital that are providing care to our in-patients. This has been historically staffed by Mayo providers, and in the beginning of June it will be Allina providers,” Johnson said, noting that part of the rational behind the transition is to create more consistency with care protocols in the Allina system. “But it’s also about cost — I will be going back to this common thread of how we make sure the hospital remains financially viable, and to do that we have to control the costs. Moving the team internally to Allina instead of outsourcing allows us to have the ability to impact that and control that a little better.”

The second change coming to Owatonna Hospital will take place in the Emergency Department, where the staff will transition to emergency care consultants that currently work within eight-hospital area for Allina.

“This is a group of emergency physicians and advanced practice providers … they are really great partners of high quality physicians and APPs who will deliver excellent care to the community,” Johnson said.

Wray-Raabolle acknowledged that while changes, or disruptions, he feels that locally it more of a positive opportunity versus some of the regional communities who have been facing services and facilities discontinuing.

“Disruptions are happening, it really started before the pandemic and then that accelerated it, and just when you thought it couldn’t get faster and it couldn’t be more disruptive, it continues,” he said. “We see it happening all around us, we see health care entities in the Midwest that are closing … It is changing quickly and rapidly and I am so thankful to be a part of an organization and community and to be surrounded by others who support us in this change.”

Some of the changes Mayo is seeing with out-patient care largely revolves on how to keep care within the system and local, Wray-Raabolle said, noting they have added new equipment in the radiology department that will help them more closely stage cancers in Owatonna. He said they have also remodeled spaces and updated breast imaging to “continue to broaden the spectrum of care with providers who are here and can direct that care.”

Johnson agreed with Wray-Raabolle that keeping patients locally is crucial to the vitality of health care within the community and is paramount to ensuring the health care infrastructure is in a good position for the long term.

“In order to do that, I need you all to encourage people to get their care locally — whenever safe and appropriate,” she said. “We need patients receiving care in Owatonna, whether it is in the clinic, the hospital, or the ambulatory surgical center that is coming … That allows for the financial viability of all three systems in order to allow that infrastructure to be in place for you all to reach your community goals.”

Cunningham also echoed his peers, noting that is one of the many reasons OMC is opening a new multiservice line clinic and ambulatory surgical center in Owatonna. The facility will be taking up the commercial space inside the new ASCEND riverfront project on Oak Avenue, and is expected to open in 2025.

Because OMC is already seeing Owatonna-area patients traveling to their other locations in Rochester, Byron and Wanamingo — among other established facilities in various southern Minnesota communities — Cunningham said with the community’s growth it makes sense to open a facility locally to better meet the needs of those patients. He asserted the new OMC location in Owatonna is not designed to take away or compete with the already existing health care systems in place, but to supplement any gaps that may exist to provide overall better care for the community.

“Health care is really a team sport,” Cunningham said. “It takes all of us.”

The Chamber Growth Breakfast series runs from September through June on the third Thursday of the month at Torey’s Restaurant and Bar. This year’s series is sponsored by Cole’s Electric, Keen Bank and Riverland Community College.

The June event will take place at 7:30 a.m. June 20 and will feature a legislative wrap-up with local elected officials.

Registration for the event is required.