July 12, 2021

Cindy’s Blog: Rural Health Structure

Clinical Partners, Rural Health

When Dr. Holmen envisioned Central Operations and Rural Health as the new structure for CentraCare, we knew we had the opportunity to do something special. CentraCare is at its heart a rural health system.  Our largest “urban” site is St. Cloud, which is not a huge metropolis by any demographer’s definition.  We collectively serve a rural demographic, yet the needs of our “Central Operations” and our rural sites are not always the same. 

Our new structure allows Joy Plamann and the Central Operations team to concentrate on optimizing the Clinical and Operational Functions of our “Central” sites as well as those functions that are enterprise-wide (think Finance, Human Resources, Information Systems, Marketing, Population Health, Performance Excellence and others). It also enables the Rural Health team to work with Central and enterprise support to optimize clinical services and operations for the rural sites that fall under Rural Health.  It’s been an exciting process and journey to get started.  

Under construction

Since we are brand new, Rural Health has essentially been “under construction” for the first half of 2021.  That construction has included envisioning, building and sharing a matrix organizational structure built on a foundation of trust and designed to intersect with Central Operations to create our best OneCentraCare. 

Below, you’ll see what this looks like.  One big advantage we see is the opportunity for significant local reporting and accountability.  We believe this will allow for local decision making (within the guide rails that we all follow as we accomplish CentraCare Strategic goals), innovation and nimbleness.  We are looking for your great ideas and we want to share them with other Rural Health Sites and across the enterprise.  

The team

The Rural Health team includes leaders from all across CentraCare’s geography, all committed to service of our rural communities and patients and innovation and collaboration in rural health care delivery.  They include:

What’s most exciting is this new team is gelling across our region.  We are communicating, sharing, and planning together in new ways.  We have had the opportunity to meet many of our leaders and staff and hear about your purpose, your daily work and your ideas.  

One example of a great idea combining collaboration and purpose is the work spearheaded by Jenn Tschida in Melrose. It included leaders and clinicians in both Melrose and Long Prairie (Anita Arceneau, Jeanette Lopez, Dan Swenson, Eric Gohman, Nicole Bjerke) who got together to brainstorm how to deliver Covid vaccines to our Latino community members, including employees of Jennie-O and Hormel who still hadn’t been vaccinated. After researching barriers and bottlenecks, they created a Friday night vaccine clinic in Long Prairie and a Saturday morning clinic in Melrose and implemented a marketing plan that included:  

• Door-to-Door education and delivery of vaccine clinic to Latino households in LP and Melrose. 
• Marketing and advertising of the clinic. 
• Q&A by Dr Chmielewski after the Hispanic church mass in Melrose to answer questions and offer handouts. 
• Phone calls from clinic staff offering the vaccine to Latino patients. 
• Information to the area farms to let their staff know. 

While the clinic was for anyone, much of the focus went into our Latino population. The clinic was promoted as a walk-in, but the day before, more than 90 patients had scheduled appointments and by the time they were done they distributed 147 vaccines! This is one example of the rural initiatives and collaborations that are happening and will continue to happen. The future is bright and we appreciate all the energy our teams are devoting to building our best Rural Health Division as part of OneCentraCare!