M Health Fairview to address health disparities through new hub

A new Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub will open on Thursday in the former St. Joseph’s Hospital, as the healthcare provider works to address inequities in accessing care.

In a recent Fairview survey of Saint Paul residents, nearly a third reported using urgent care or emergency department for everyday needs.  The 2021 Community Health Needs Assessment Report surveyed nearly 300 residents and found more than half of them faced barriers in getting care when they’re sick. The most common barriers were a lack of knowledge or understanding of how and where to get the right care, followed by cost concerns and logistics. It also identified racial and gender disparities.

“In the State of Minnesota and across the country we’re seeing disparities in wellbeing, in access to care, in experiences and those outcomes overall,” said Diane Tran, the director of M Health Fairview’s new Center for Community Health Equity. It’s located within the Health and Wellness Hub.

“As we think about the ability to change some of those metrics, we know there is a lot of work that has to be done,” said Tran. “There’s so much opportunity when we think about 90% of what impacts health and wellbeing takes place outside of the clinical settings. These things that relate to food, to housing, to the ability to feel safe in your community — those social determinants of health really are what we need to look at as we think about the bigger landscape about what creates wellness and hinders it.”

The Center for Community Health Equity will serve as a space for the provider to collaborate with community members and organizations to develop new programs and expand existing programs across the state. According to Tran, the work may include implementing additional food distribution programs, expanding community vaccination clinics, or adding “cultural brokers”.

M Health Fairview has six cultural brokers, which are bi-lingual and multicultural staff members who connect Indigenous, Hispanic and Latino, Hmong, African American and Karen communities to healthcare services and other resources. They served more than 165 clients…