Three people arrived at HCMC in downtown Minneapolis on a recent Friday around the same time and for the same reason: They could not find the health care they needed anywhere else.
Audrey Gohre’s feet were mangled by a boat propeller in Lake Waconia. Skyler Seidel burned 40% of his skin when he tripped carrying a pot of boiling oil in Sturgis, S.D. Susan Linnell had the dental problems of a woman her age, 57, but the mental capacity of a toddler.
“She can’t cooperate,” said her mother, Carol Linnell. “I worry about her biting the dentists.”
The specialized care of all three patients last month underscores what’s at stake as Hennepin County retakes direct control of the taxpayer-supported hospital and its parent health care system, Hennepin Healthcare.
Without increasing funding or making cuts, the county can’t afford HCMC and its worsening financial problems. It also can’t afford to lose the urban medical center and its unmatched expertise in areas such as wound and burn care.
“Those kinds of services, that’s what the state expects HCMC to offer,” said Jeffery Lunde, a county board member who advocated for the change in governing.
The emergency department at HCMC is the state’s busiest, treating 92,000 patients each year. (Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Formerly known as Hennepin County Medical Center, HCMC is nationally known for treating traumatic injuries and training the next generation of U.S. emergency room physicians. Its emergency department is the state’s busiest, treating 92,000 patients each year. Locally, the hospital is known as a safety net for patients who can’t afford their care; it ranks 12th in Minnesota for total patient admissions, but second for uninsured patients.
Lately, HCMC is known for something else: losing money.
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