By Teri Knight, News Director
In preparation for becoming an Emergency Response Center, Northfield Hospital and Clinics has canceled elective surgeries and more, causing a substantial financial loss. CEO Steve Underdahl, “the vast majority of things that we do in medical centers, frankly, barely cover their costs, if at all, and 
there’s a handful of things that we do that pay for themselves and everything else. Disproportionately those things in the second bucket are the things that we’ve discontinued”. He estimates they’re losing about $1 million a week. On a state-wide level, the estimate for a 90 day period is in the realm of $3 billion, he commented, “I mean, it is just it’s kind of space shuttle kind of money, even at a state level”. It’s a balance to make sure they also have enough resources after this is over to survive. They’ve furloughed some employees, they’ve cut the salaries of some. They did receive some dollars from the Federal
Government and expect to receive some dollars from the State but it won’t be enough. Overall, he believes they’ll recover, his real concern is for Rural Healthcare, “I’m concerned at the end of this an unintended consequence is that Rural Health Care may be so diminished that it never recovers”. While NH&C is prepping for what might happen in terms of the virus, they’re also working on strategies of reopening when restrictions are lifted. Underdahl said, “Once people feel comfortable enough and bans are lifted and all of that to come back, how do we make sure that we’ve got things everything in place to accommodate them. The other is a little bit more strategic and a little bit more philosophical in that I’m not personally convinced that the world won’t be forever different in some ways after COVID”. For example, ordering groceries online and having them brought out to your car. They’re thinking about how much of THEIR business moves to virtual and technology aided care. Underdahl’s full interview is HERE.
HealthFinders taking on Covid-19 response for marginalized community
HealthFinders started in a church basement in Dundas as a free clinic in 2005. They provide, “help to folks without health insurance or on public assistance. And we’ve got a range of primary, medical, dental, mental health care programs, as well as the range of wellness initiatives, chronic disease management and a host of access and advocacy. So getting 
folks connected with health insurance”. That’s Executive Director, Charlie Mandile. HealthFinders is making sure they can triage those who may have the coronavirus as they work with District One and Northfield Hospitals. They work to lift language barriers by providing information on Covid-19 in Spanish and Somali as well as English on their website. They have been working on ways to support those patients with ongoing issues. In terms of dollars for the non-profit, they had to postpone their big fundraising gala and their capital campaign initiative. A mix of things have happened to help them, “and our partners really stepped forward to support us with some kind of funding, some bridge funding/gap funding that we didn’t even ask for to just help keep us going”. HealthFinders also just received a grant of nearly $155,000 from the MN Dept. of Health to assist in their efforts with anything from, “a drive through community testing site, to an overflow space for any hospitals, staging area for health systems, or really an aggressive triage space where we could really connect with patients and figure out who does and who doesn’t need to go to the hospital isn’t as those resources become overwhelmed”. Mandile’s full interview is HERE.
Lippert comments on Governor consortium – will hold a virtual Town Hall
Tomorrow morning Rep. Todd Lippert will host a Virtual Town Hall to update the community on the state’s COVID-19 response. You’ll also have an opportunity to ask questions and share feedback. The meeting will be simultaneously held on Facebook Live and Zoom at 10:30 AM. Lippert was on the air this morning. He discussed Minnesota joining with other states in designing a strategy for reopening our economy. His full interview is HERE.
SWCD plant sale
It’s last call to order trees and plants through the Rice County Soil and Water Conservation District. Sales close on April 27th. Check out their online inventory and place your order. This information and links is on our Community News page.
