Helping to create a community of health and wellness in Minnesota

Sept. 27, 2023

Video

A health and wellness hub in St. Paul

Video transcript

Ambient instrumental music plays throughout. A blue u-shaped logo appears against a white background, followed by text.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Introducing Fairview’s Community

Health and Wellness Hub

ONSCREEN TEXT: UnitedHealthcare’s Communities of Health partnership in St. Paul, MN

A siren is heard outside the Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub. A blue box slides into the bottom left of the screen containing white text.

ONSCREEN TEXT: St. Paul, MN

A man, James Hereford, stands at a podium holding a microphone.

JAMES: I see this as a starting point. Not as an endpoint. We’re celebrating a point in time, yes, we’re celebrating a building, we’re celebrating a set of partners, but this is the beginning of a concept. A different kind of concept.

Now, a group of people cut through a blue ribbon with novelty scissors and applaud. A sign in the background reads “Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub.”

Diane Tran interviews within the Hub. A blue box slides into the bottom left of the screen containing white text.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Diane Tran

System Executive Director of Community Health

Equity and Engagement at M Health Fairview

DIANE: It’s the launch of the Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub, which is a new model to integrate access points for care and services.

Brett Edelson interviews.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Brett Edelson

UnitedHealthcare CEO,

Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota

BRETT: It is a one stop shop for all social services provided in one place to the community.

Olivia Jefferson interviews.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Olivia Jefferson

UnitedHealthcare Vice President, Social Responsibility

OLIVIA: Often times our communities know what they need, they know what the issues are, but they need resources. They need people, they need commitment.

The camera pans across the contemporary lobby of the Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub. Brett interviews.

BRETT: We had an opportunity to work with the partner organizations, to look at the data and do some analytics around which interventions were going to be most impactful for this community.

OLIVIA: Yes we can treat your diabetes, but we also want to make sure that you have a job, we also want to make sure that you’re eating well, and that you have access to culturally appropriate food that meets your needs.

Someone wheels a pallet of boxes over a paved floor as people load similar boxes with grocery and wellness items on a conveyer belt. The screen splits vertically in two, and white text appears over a blue background as people continue to pack the boxes.

ONSCREEN TEXT: The Fairview Community

Health and Wellness Hub

marks the inaugural

investment of

UnitedHealthcare’s

Communities of Health

initiative.

ONSCREEN TEXT: The large-scale community

initiative focuses on building

healthier and more

equitable communities.

ONSCREEN TEXT: By convening local partners

to make sustainable

infrastructure investments,

based on local data, we can

Help address the root causes

of community-specific

health disparities.

ONSCREEN TEXT: St. Paul is one of three

cities UnitedHealthcare has

focused Communities of

Health efforts in this year.

Olivia interviews.

OLIVIA: What we know at UnitedHealthcare is that we can’t do this work by ourselves. So, we’re really excited to be among the many that are committed to this community.

Trudi Trysla interviews. A blue box slides into the bottom left of the screen containing white text.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Trudi Trysla

Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer

Fairview

TRUDI: Partnerships is what made this whole Community Hub for Health and Wellness happen.

UnitedHealthcare are a major contributor financially, but they were really with us in the design and the commitment to our community. And learning to understand from health population standpoint how we are best served by some of our community health programs to really impact our communities in the most significant way.

Brett interviews.

BRETT: I think that’s the first step in addressing health equity, is understanding what’s really needed, and then how to deliver in a way that’s going to be best for the community that you’re serving.

A blue u-shaped logo appears against a white background, followed by text.

ONSCREEN TEXT: United

Healthcare

The music fades.

It’s an unfortunate but true reality: Oftentimes, communities do not always have adequate access to the health and social services that best meet their needs – especially underserved communities with diverse populations. In an effort to target health disparities and remove barriers, Fairview Health Services established the Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub in 2022, which offers direct access to health care services, social programming resources and more to help improve the well-being of community members.

The Hub sits in downtown St. Paul on the site of the former St. Joseph’s Hospital, and is also home to the M Health Fairview Center for Community Health Equity.

As part of its Communities of Health initiative, UnitedHealthcare partnered with Fairview to identify the needs of the community and supported the design of the healthcare and social programming services at the Hub to meet the most vital community priorities. In addition to an initial $1 million infrastructure investment, UnitedHealthcare continues to partner with Fairview and other local health care and community organizations to address the systemic issues of health disparities and social determinants of health.

The services available at the Hub target high prevalence issues in the community, such as living with type 2 diabetes, behavioral health diagnoses and food insecurity. The services are provided in a “one-stop shop” experience so clinical service providers can help conduct social determinant of health screenings and make referrals, as needed.

The Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub also works in collaboration with a number of community partners to improve access to programs that address health disparities. This includes:

Minnesota Community Care, the state’s largest federally qualified health center, opened its 19th location, the St. Paul Wellness Center, at the hub to offer affordable, multi-dimensional primary care, wellness services and more.
M Health Fairview Mental Health & Addiction Services has expanded outpatient care in a new clinic location within the hub, as well as transitional care and mental health bridging services to support people while they await the next phase in their care.
Fairview Frontiers conducts research in a variety of areas, including new health technologies, wearable devices and new therapies.
The Sanneh Foundation operates food storage, distribution and pop-up food shelves at the hub in coordination with Second Harvest Heartland, helping address immediate food access needs in St. Paul.
Ebenezer, a subsidiary of Fairview Health Services, operates a first-of-its-kind model of adult day services in the state of Minnesota. The program, called Daybreak of St. Paul, will help underserved seniors maintain active and independent lives through an enhanced adult day experience.

“One of the many ways we work to advance health equity is by partnering with organizations who have these same goals. We are more successful when we are all in it together,” said Brett Edelson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, Employer & Individual plans. “Congratulations and thank you to all of our partners in this important work. By understanding the needs of our communities, we can help make the whole system work better for everyone.”

A year later, the Hub has created an integrated point of access to better health and wellness services, including:

Providing thousands of community members access to care for primary and behavioral health appointments and referrals to local resources, such as transportation assistance and food support.
Collaborating with Fairview and other Food Hub partners to provide food to more than 1,600 households weekly, which amounts to 12,000 servings of food totaling 100,000 pounds of fresh produce each week.
Actively supporting more than 50 small, local, primarily BIPOC-owned farms by purchasing their fresh produce at market price. Additionally, the Empowerment Program employs 25+ youth weekly to learn about food packaging and delivery.

For more information about the one-year anniversary, visit the UnitedHealth Group Newsroom.

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