The fight to keep Minneapolis’ Hennepin County Medical Center open is in full swing, with leaders saying the hospital is in grave danger of closing after Medicaid cuts and budget confusion.
The hospital, also known as HCMC and Hennepin Healthcare, is a place locals call on for emergencies. It’s a place Dr. Tyler Winkelman, a Fargo native, felt called to.
“HCMC is a special place. There are opportunities to not only practice clinical medicine, but to conduct cutting-edge research,” Winkelman said.
When he’s not seeing patients, he’s looking at stats.
“One in 10 [Minnesotans] will have at least two chronic health conditions,” Winkelman said.
In 2020, he helped create MN EHR Consortium, an online database that confidentially complies the health records of nearly every Minnesotan. They tracked COVID, and now track cancer, depression and beyond — down to the neighborhood.
“This is a homegrown product and there’s no other data system like this in the United States,” Winkelman said.
He says alongside the hospital’s hyperbaric chamber and renowned trauma center, the consortium is worth saving.
“What having a research institute allows us to do is to really be at that cutting edge, to be innovating and to be making sure that our treatments and the community that we serve have access to the latest developments in medicine,” he said.
As for the hospital potentially closing all together, Winkelman says it would be “a public health crisis.”Â
“This situation couldn’t be more urgent,” he said. “We have to have a solution, we must keep Hennepin Healthcare open.”
The hospital’s future is in the hands of the state Legislature. Hospital leaders tell WCCO they do have signs of bipartisan support and they’ll know more about a bill that could save HCMC next week.
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