The University of Minnesota Board of Regents voted 12-0 on Friday to approve a preliminary agreement that sets the framework for a new 10-year partnership with Fairview Health Services and the M Physicians faculty practice.
The three-way settlement agreement, hashed out over the course of seven weeks with the assistance of a team of mediators, preserves the 30-year partnership between the three institutions, while sunsetting the six-year-old “M Health Fairview” brand.
Rebecca Cunningham. (Courtesy of the University of Minnesota)
“There is a win for our health and healthcare practitioners … and it’s a win for Minnesota,” said U president Rebecca Cunningham. “The news around health and healthcare affects so many across the university and across the state.”
“This agreement is a milestone and now we have clarity and stability, and with clarity and stability, we can serve Minnesota better … and grow in our national competitiveness,” she added.
‘Strategic pivot’
Key roles will change, said Cunningham, who called the preliminary agreement “a strategic pivot, instead of a joint venture like the current model.”
Fairview will be more firmly in charge of hospital operations, while dedicating $1 billion in funding to update medical facilities on the U campus over the course of the decade. Fairview will also provide $50 million in annual funding for the medical school, with the “potential for additional funding based on system performance,” according to a joint announcement.
At the same time, the framework “clarifies our non-exclusive relationship with Fairview,” allowing for “additional and expanded partnerships to advance high-quality care across Minnesota,” Cunningham said.
Leadership council
A new leadership council aims to improve collaboration between the university, Fairview and M Physicians, and a future program will help residents of rural Minnesota access specialized care, backed by an initial commitment of $10 million from Fairview.
University officials have noted that the M Health Fairview brand provides medical services for 1.2 million people annually and trains 70% of Minnesota doctors, and they scrambled last year to preserve its core components after being initially shut out of negotiations between Fairview and the M Physicians group.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office, which regulates charities, became involved in discussions and assisted with finding mediators.
The new framework sets the stage for three separate “definitive agreements,” which have yet to be finalized. They include the academic affiliation agreement between the U and Fairview, the master agreement between M Physicians and the U, and an amendment to the Fairview/M Physicians “stability agreement” that was agreed upon last November, as well as a new lease for the U’s Clinics and Surgery Center in Minneapolis.
Medical school dean departs
Also Friday, the Board of Regents bid farewell after nine years to University of Minnesota Medical School Dean Jakub Tolar, who has been named the new president, chief executive officer and executive dean of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
In his place, the regents on Friday unanimously approved a two-year appointment for Dr. Carol Bradford to serve as both dean of the medical school and interim executive vice president for Health Affairs.
Bradford has been dean of the Ohio State University College of Medicine and vice president for Health Sciences at its Wexner Medical Center since September 2020.
She is a past president of the American Academy of Otolaryngology and former executive vice dean for academic affairs at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Moment of silence
Regent Joel Bergstrom closed Friday’s meeting with a moment of silence in memory of University of Minnesota alum Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, and Renee Good, two protesters killed by federal agents this month.
Bergstrom also made a personal plea for an end to Operation Metro Surge, the federal Department of Homeland Security initiative that has sent as many as 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota, most of them concentrated in the Twin Cities.
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“As the university community, we continue grieving for the loss of life, which includes one of our own,” said Cunningham, at the outset of the meeting, while praising the ways in which university students, faculty and staff were supporting each other.
“It gives me hope,” she said. “We can be a light in this time.”
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