Health innovations – Here for Life

Hennepin team member uses connection to Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe to purchase wild rice for food insecure patients

March 24, 2023

For the past four years, Hennepin Healthcare has purchased and distributed shelf-stable, nutritionally balanced bags of food from Every Meal for patients facing food insecurity. However, Senior Community Health Worker Paula Brown noticed a gap.

Currently, there are five varieties of bag that cater to different cultural preferences. For example, orange bags are tailored to Latino dietary preferences and have foods such as black/pinto beans, corn flour, rice, enchilada sauce, and chipotles in adobo. Blue bags on the other hand are pork-free and tailored to African dietary preferences. (more…)

Integrative, holistic, whole person care – served-up at your doorstep!

January 19, 2023

The Heals on Wheels (HoW) program at Hennepin Healthcare centers around the concept that to truly provide whole person care to everyone in our community, sometimes we must make the effort to literally meet patients where they are. Barriers to transportation and access to whole-person, integrative care are a seemingly insurmountable problem for many. HoW strives to eliminate these barriers by bringing our integrative team directly into the community, fostering deeper connections between the healthcare teams and the people they serve. (more…)

‘Putting up’ fall foods

September 9, 2022

Integrative Internal Medicine Physician, Farmer, and Food-Lover Dr. Kate Shafto teaches us how to make our fall harvest last throughout the winter.

As summer wanes and signs of fall arrive, my attention turns to how I can honor the bounty of summer’s harvest and preserve it for the winter months ahead.

I did not grow up with this tradition, though I vaguely recall an awareness that some people in rural Tennessee, where I was born, spent time canning, preserving and “putting up” food for the winter. I have chosen to learn these skills in recent years as a way to align my family’s lifestyle with our values of respect for the earth, reducing food waste (and packaging and food costs), having more connection to our food and eating as locally as possible for as much of the year as possible. (more…)

Mobile clinic brings health care to patients’ doors–from a bigger, brighter van

April 19, 2022

A three-year-old patient was behind on her vaccine appointments, and a look at her chart showed other medical needs—a history of seizures and some missed appointments with her specialist. When Nurse Practitioner Katie Brown saw the toddler’s chart, she knew she had to find out what was happening—and she had to help.

Katie learned that it was nearly impossible for the child’s mother to show up for the appointments she was scheduling due to conflicts and caring for her other children– whether it was routine vaccines or other care. (more…)

Find your ‘me time’

January 27, 2022

Everyone feels and reacts to stress in different ways. Stress is the way your mind and body react to a threat or a challenge. Simple things, like a crying child, can cause stress. You also feel stress when you’re in danger, like during a robbery or car crash. Even positive things, like getting married, can be stressful. (more…)

Voices of Hennepin Healthcare: Aida Strom

January 21, 2022

Aida Strom, Hennepin Healthcare’s health equity community engagement program manager, envisions a collaborative healthcare model built with the histories and hopes of those it serves.

“I so strongly believe that every single human deserves good healthcare and respect within the healthcare system,” expresses Aida Strom, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate.

As the health equity community engagement program manager at Hennepin Healthcare, Aida is participating in an innovative planning process to advance health equity. She advocates for a collaborative healthcare model that partners with communities to practice historically informed, consent-based and culturally respectful care. She believes that this is possible at Hennepin Healthcare, recognizing its unique role within the region’s healthcare landscape. (more…)

Healthy Matters podcast off to healthy start

January 19, 2022

The new Healthy Matters Podcast with Dr. David Hilden is now live on all podcast platforms! After launching just two weeks ago, the podcast has already reached over 1,400 downloads. With three episodes available and episode 4 launching this Sunday morning January 22, listeners can enjoy Dr. Hilden talk all things healthcare at your own leisure and on any device. (more…)

Voices of Hennepin Healthcare: Rebecca Thomas

January 5, 2022

Rebecca Thomas, an Elliot Park Neighborhood advocate, shares the importance of holistic and trusted programs that are guided by community conversations.

“I grew up in an area that was highly diverse with different racial, cultural and religious backgrounds. I came from a low-income family and was surrounded by wealth disparities,” shares Rebecca Thomas, a licensed clinical social worker and the Interim Administrator at Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc.

“I was drawn to the voices that you don’t typically hear, those who have to work extra hard to make ends meet. This drew me to the community organizing side of things, based on the desires of what people were explicitly telling me.” (more…)