Dr. Tim Sielaff, executive fellow at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, recently spoke with the Star Tribune for a story about whether taxpayers and other players across the health sector need to provide more funding for the University of Minnesota's health care training programs.
From the story:
The U needs access to patients in order to satisfy its three-part mission of cutting-edge care, groundbreaking research and top-notch training, said Dr. Timothy Seilaff, an executive fellow at the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas.
But competition is threatening the statewide supply of patients to the U hospital, Seilaff said.
In Duluth, Essentia Health is bolstering services inside a gleaming new $915 million hospital while merging with a prominent health system in Wisconsin, said Seilaff, who was a physician executive for many years at Allina Health System.
Just 3 miles from the U Twin Cities campus, Allina is spending $1.2 billion to upgrade facilities at Abbott Northwestern, a hospital that provides many of the same high-end services. And then there's Mayo Clinic in Rochester, which for decades has been a global destination for specialty care.
"The question that hasn't been answered in a really clear way to me is: What is the unique value proposition of the University of Minnesota Medical Center?" he asked. "I think 25-30 years ago, when I trained there, we could have said that we are serving the entire state, we are a resource to all the different health systems. I'm not positive that's true anymore."
