Uncategorized – Here for Life

Gratitude for the smallest things

March 20, 2023

Linda Johnson had never been a patient at Hennepin Healthcare until an accident made the Level I Trauma Center the perfect place at an unfortunate time. Linda was picking up her two grandsons from school in mid-November 2022. While standing at the top of a set of stairs, she turned to watch the boys run down a ramp. Not realizing she was at the top, Linda walked forward and fell down eight or nine cement steps.

“I was completely unaware of what was happening for the next couple of days,” Linda said.

Luckily, her daughter, Catherine Justice, is a physical therapist for Hennepin Healthcare. (more…)

Read Hennepin Healthcare’s 2022 Health Equity Report

February 21, 2023

Hennepin Healthcare is embarking on a journey to become what does not yet exist. We must envision a new path to serve our communities in the way they deserve and reach outcomes that are not predicted by race.

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American Heart Month highlights an employee patient story tearing at your heartstrings

February 21, 2023

We usually celebrate February’s American Heart Month promoting heart disease prevention, healthy habits, and education. Taking care of your heart health is a lifestyle we can all embrace. But some people aren’t so lucky.

Megan Ireland is a nurse on 5 Medicine at Hennepin Healthcare. She loves where she works, and the diverse population she cares for. She is currently on a medical leave and missing her co-workers terribly. (more…)

The longest living HCMC kidney transplant patient – DuWayne’s story

January 16, 20232

DuWayne Virnig of Little Falls, MN, formerly of Coon Rapids, is Hennepin Healthcare’s longest living kidney transplant patient, at the age of 82. Thanks to a donor kidney when DuWayne was 37 years old, he has led a long and prosperous life with a loving family and much to be thankful for.

DuWayne began dialysis in 1978 at the age of 37 and, within 6 weeks, had surgery to receive a donor kidney. He and his wife, Lottie, had two small children, Jon and Lora, and were living a good life in Coon Rapids, MN. His daughter, Lora, tells his story. (more…)

Hennepin Healthcare is one of the first healthcare organizations to meet or exceed rigorous requirements for national health equity accreditation

October 18, 2022

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently announced that Hennepin Healthcare earned its Health Equity Accreditation Plus accreditation, which recognizes organizations that lead the market in providing culturally and linguistically sensitive services, and work to reduce health care disparities. NCQA awards Accreditation to organizations that meet or exceed its rigorous requirements for health equity. Hennepin Healthcare was one of two healthcare organizations in the country to receive this recognition – the first time NCQA has accredited healthcare systems.

Dr. Nneka Sederstrom, Hennepin Healthcare’s Chief Health Equity Officer, has been leading the way in the organization’s efforts to align their practices into policies. (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…)

Hennepin team members honored during ceremony returning sacred land to Fond du Lac community

September 1, 2022

Two weeks ago, two members of our Hennepin Healthcare team – Lindsey King and her mother Laura King (shown 1st and 2nd above along with Governor Evers, Brian and Patty Brunette and Lindsey’s son Matthew Marzolf) —took a walk with the governor of Wisconsin across sacred land that had been torn from their ancestors and that Lindsey’s great-grandfather spent his life fighting to reclaim. It was the end of a long journey, more than 100 years in the making, to return sacred burial grounds to the Anishinaabe people. (more…)