At a recent Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Health Care Forum, HealthPartners CEO, Andrea Walsh, along with other Minnesota health care leaders, spoke about how the pandemic has sparked transformation in an industry that was not known for being nimble.

Looking at all the unforeseen events of the last year, Andrea said, “Some of the biggest challenges have also created the biggest opportunities… The pace of change we’ve seen in 2020 and the ways we’ve had to change both how we deliver care as well as how we support health and well-being actually present some of the greatest opportunities moving forward.”

Among HealthPartners priorities and achievements, she highlighted:

• focusing above all on ensuring the health and well-being of everyone we serve and all our team members;
• overcoming capacity issues by leveraging HealthPartners’ system of hospitals and clinics to ensure patients had access to care;
• innovating with drive-up COVID-19 testing that may evolve into a safe, accessible approach for vaccination;
• finding creative supply chain solutions to ensure the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, goggles, gloves and gowns;
• empowering members and patients through digital technology– from video visits to mobile check-in to Virtuwell;
• strongly focusing on equity, inclusion and anti-racism and tracking progress to our goals; and
• playing a leading role in vaccine trials by partnering on the AstraZeneca Phase 3 COVID-19 clinical trial.

The speed with which everyone from patients to members to the vast health care team has adapted has been breathtaking, far from what was predicted before COVID hit.

“What we’ve seen is that pace of change and necessity really breed innovation and through that innovation, we improve care,” concluded Andrea.

Read the MSPBJ article about the Forum.