Ahna Logan, RN and care coordinator, is a constant source of support and guidance for families with children born with cleft lip or palate. When Kennedy and Kyle Johnson learned their daughter Kallihan (aka Kalli) would be born with a cleft lip, Logan and our cleft care team gave them hope. The family’s journey started before Kalli was born, when her cleft lip was detected during a routine ultrasound. The family turned to our Cleft Lip and Palate Program to help them find the best path forward for Kalli. This included surgery to repair her cleft lip when she was 3 months old. Logan was with them every step of the way. “We really want them to be prepared,” Logan said. “I want them to feel they have the resources they need.” This attentiveness continued after Kalli’s surgery. Logan quick responses to the family’s questions helped put them at ease. “I don’t think we’d be able to be so calm, cool, and collected if we didn’t have such great nurses and doctors,” Kalli’s parents said.
We’re proud to announce that more than 60 M Health Fairview physicians were recognized by Minnesota Monthly this year as “Top Doctors for Women.” Building trust and empathy with our patients is the foundation of healthcare. “For women, it means recognizing their unique health needs, listening to their concerns, and treating them with respect,” said Jaya Kumar, MD, MBA, internist, nephrologist, and chief medical officer with Fairview Health Services. Check to see if your doctor made the list.
Richard Ostlund has played a pivotal role shaping Fairview Health Services as a member of the Fairview Board of Directors for more than a decade. Now, his distinguished tenure on our board – which includes serving as board chair since 2019 – has concluded. Congratulations and a profound ‘thank you’ to Ostlund for his service! Ostlund has decades of experience as an attorney, as director of multiple companies, and a national author for the American Bar Association (ABA) on fiduciary duties. During his time on our board, he helped guide the organization through many transformative moments, including forging new strategic partnerships, navigating a global pandemic and its associated challenges, and steering Fairview back to financial stability and profitability in 2024. “It has been an incredible honor to serve on the board of Fairview and work closely with my fellow board members – from across Minnesota and the nation, all with specialized skills – to advocate for our patients, doctors, nurses, and all team-members in our complex, $7 billion dollar health system,” said Ostlund. “Together, we’ve achieved remarkable milestones that will shape the future of healthcare in Minnesota, while guiding Fairview's return to financial health following the pandemic.”
Earlier this month, students at Hastings High School got hands-on training for responding to serious injuries during a “Stop the Bleed” training course. Michael Doering, system director of trauma services for M Health Fairview, partnered with Dakota County to help lead the training. “If we can help teach just a few people to recognize and stop bleeding, then we can help save lives,” he said. Students learn practical skills, such as packing wounds and applying tourniquets, applicable to everyday scenarios like kitchen accidents or sports injuries, to more dangerous crises. “I feel safer,” said one student who took the training. “I feel like if I’m out and about and somebody needs help, I can actually save them.”
Recognition is an honor, but it’s not why we are here. Providing compassionate and effective care – that’s our focus. Still, we are thrilled that three M Health Fairview hospitals – Southdale, St. John’s, and Ridges – were all recognized as “High Performing” for stroke care by U.S. News & World Report in 2024. Six other hospitals in our health system were also honored for their quality stroke care by U.S. News & World Report. Seven locations also received achievement awards from the American Stroke Association for driving positive outcomes for stroke patients. “We have invested considerable effort and resources to build a specialist stroke team and telemedicine infrastructure that can treat all stroke patients wherever they are located within M Health Fairview,” said Christopher Streib, MD, cerebrovascular director with M Health Fairview and an associate professor University of Minnesota Medical School. Learn more about awards here. 🏆 https://mhfv.care/41xlmeD
When an M Health Fairview EMS team responded to a house fire in Scandia, Minn., last month, they found Pearl, a dog struggling to breathe from severe smoke inhalation. Paramedic and dog-lover Steven Greenhow and his team leapt into action, improvising a makeshift oxygen mask to fit over Pearl’s snout using a McDonald's cup threaded with an oxygen hose. Thanks to the team’s quick thinking, Pearl recovered and got a clean bill of health from her veterinarian. During a touching reunion yesterday, Pearl and her owners Nate Meidl and Katie Faragher thanked the EMS crew who saved Pearl’s life. "The biggest thing I want to come out of this is just to let the public know how hard our first responders work, and to make sure they get recognized for the heroism they do every day, not just with saving Pearl." said Faragher. "Every single day they help people and change lives." KARE 11 has their full reunion. 🐶 https://mhfv.care/3CB0mcz hashtag#EMS | hashtag#EmergencyRescue
We are committed to a supportive and safe healthcare experience for every patient. That’s why we now offer patients the option to hide weight information and BMI in their after-visit summaries. Patients can also decline weight-related discussions if they find them unhelpful. This update is especially meaningful to patients who may be experiencing eating disorders, body image, and weight stigma concerns. Carol Peterson, Ph.D, LP, a psychologist and professor at University of Minnesota Medical School was part of that group that implemented the change. “For people with eating disorders, weight can be a number that’s extremely triggering,” Peterson said. “So it was important to allow that choice.” For Peterson, working on this project was important to her because of the impact it had on people who were once fearful of going to the doctor.
Elissa Butler, MD, a pediatric general surgeon with M Health Fairview Pediatrics, loves guiding families through life-changing moments. "I have always loved kids," she said. Butler, newly hired to our team in September, provides compassionate care to children from newborns to 18 years old, treating everything from appendix removals, hernia repairs, to complex congenital conditions with the chest or abdomen. She loves the feeling of getting to “fix the problem and help these kids move on with their lives.” Originally from Texas, Butler felt coming back to Minnesota was a “homecoming.” Shaped by her positive experience at the University of Minnesota Medical School, where she is now an assistant professor, Butler is looking forward to expanding our general surgery offerings, making it easier for Minnesota families to get the care they need closer to home. As a long-term goal, Butler is excited to advance our minimally invasive and robotic surgery offerings for children and adolescents, providing better outcomes for patients and their families.
A special shoutout to all our team members who took time out of their busy schedules to volunteer with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity this week! Over 60 volunteers from across our health system signed up to help with construction of The Heights project, creating stable, affordable housing for St. Paul’s East Side. This work is a continuation of what began earlier this month when leadership across Fairview participated in Habitat for Humanity’s 2024 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project where we helped launch The Heights construction – Twin Cities Habitat’s largest-ever development. These efforts are a testament to our health system’s unwavering commitment to investing in accessible housing helping keep our communities safe and healthy. Learn more about our housing initiatives here: https://mhfv.care/3TRYjq2 hashtag#HousingisHealth | hashtag#HealthEquity
Our 3D mobile mammography truck is helping more patients in Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities get access to lifesaving breast cancer screenings. Among Black women diagnosed with breast cancer, there's a significant difference in survival rates compared to non-Hispanic white or Asian women. One way to change this is to make breast cancer screening more accessible. The truck is equipped with the latest in hashtag#breastcancer screening technology and can be driven to our neighborhood clinics that serve predominantly Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) patients. “We recognized disparities in breast cancer screening across different populations based on race and language,” said Malay Thao, health equity consultant at M Health Fairview. “We worked with our community partners to pilot a project to improve breast cancer screening, targeting improvements in non-white and non-English speaking populations.” Learn more: https://mhfv.care/3YrRnTr hashtag#BreastCancerAwarenessMonth | hashtag#CancerCare | hashtag#HealthEquity
