Essentia Health

We are here to bring you the latest and greatest in ophthalmology, medicine, and more.

In today's Mayo Clinic Ophthalmology Podcast, we are joined by Dr. David Herman, Chief Executive Officer for Essentia Health.

Tune in to hear about his remarkable leadership journey from Mayo ophthalmologist to healthcare leader.

Today we're honored to host Dr. David Herman, a prior ophthalmologist here at Mayo and now Chief Executive Officer for Essentia Health, located in Northern Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Dr. Herrmann served as Professor of Ophthalmology here at the Mayo Clinic from 1988 to 2011.

During that time, he served in various leadership roles, including the Clinical Practice Committee, the Rochester Executive Board, and the Board of Directors of the Mayo Clinic Health System.

In the last 15 years, he first led Vidant Health in Eastern North Carolina and now Essentia Health.

In addition to helping advance and grow the services and campus of Essentia Health, he has designed and implemented care models that improve health care outcomes for its patients and communities.

Just last week, central Minnesota's largest health care provider, CentraCare, announced it will acquire Stellis Health.

This follows an announcement last month from health partners and Essentia Health saying they'll combine their operations in the upper Midwest.

And Sanford Health and North Memorial Health completed their merger just in early September.

We'll talk now to someone who's been studying hospital mergers and their impacts to get a closer look at the consolidation of health care.

And this is our first go at that, where we would be asking the investors, developers, to include 5% equivalent of housing that's on the affordable scale.

Construction has begun on a new Essentia Health Clinic in Horace.

The facility is expected to open in late 2027 and will bring urgent care, family medicine, and pediatrics to the growing community.

It will also offer radiology and lab services.

Essentia Health West Market President Dr. Stephanie Geffro-Allison says the clinic will fill a critical local need.

With that growth comes the great need for health care, of course.

We want to make sure that the residents have access to the care that they need right here close to home.

A new family medicine clinic is headed to Horace.

Essentia Health will break ground on the project today with a planned opening for late 2027.

The groundbreaking will take place at the future clinic site, marking the next step forward.

State regulators are weighing safety and local control over a proposed $245 million battery storage project in Cass County.

Halloween candy will be available on fixed route buses Saturday.

You can find routes and trip planning tools at mattbus.com. A new family medicine clinic is coming to Horace.

Essentia Health will break ground today on the project with an opening planned for late 2027.

Dr. Stephanie Geffro, Essentia West Market President, will join Horace Mayor Jeff Trudeau and community leaders for the celebration.

The expansion comes as consumers increasingly prioritize protein and farmers continue facing higher costs for fuel, fertilizer, and other expenses.

Essentia Health employees in Duluth have a new co-worker now, an AI-powered robot helping people with disabilities build independence in the workplace through UDAC, an organization that supports employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

The robot uses facial recognition to greet employees, share job-related information, and provide reminders, including when to clock in.

NOW is designed to complement, not replace, human support, allowing UDAC's career and life coaches to focus on employees who need more individualized assistance.

The organization obtained the robot through a partnership with the University of Minnesota and a grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

UDAC has received a third year of grant funding to continue the program beyond Essentia Health.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal reported this week that Eide Bailey is expanding its Pacific Northwest presence by acquiring Washington-based Loveridge, Hunt & Co., with the deal expected to close October 19th.

The firm had 33 employees in 2025 and specializes in serving the affordable housing industry, including developers, builders, and investors.

So he did some pricing and, uh, you know, cataract, that's, you know, where you have the lens issue with your eye, right? The lens gets kinda clouded up.

Um, but anyways, um, so he called Essentia.

And yeah, I'm gonna call out Essentia here a little bit.

So, uh, you know, they called them up and they asked them, "Hey, what, what would it cost to do this here if you did the, if you did the surgery at Essentia?" Okay, and, uh, so, so he called them up, got the pricing.

Uh, and I'm sure you could call them up and just get an idea of this too, but, uh, they, they quoted him at about, uh, for the eye surgery for one cataract in one eye, it'd be about, about $43,000.

Now, some of that is-

Whew!

Is like, I think it's like 18 to 20,000 is the facility fee.

The, you know, communities just can't do any of, of, any of this alone.

Um, and working with our partners at Clay County, working with Moorhead Public School District, working with MSUM, um, Concordia M State, working with Essentia Health.

Um, that's another huge game changer for Moorhead is the new urgent care clinic that's gonna be going in downtown Moorhead that'll open in the spring of 2027.

Um, and that's really gonna be the anchor of our downtown health and wellness district.

And so, you know, people who are struggling, um, feel really isola- isolated and lonely and...

But if we have places for them to find community, we have places for them to know that they can go to get help, um, that's gonna really help to break down some of those challenges and barriers.

And, and that's what we're doing at downtown Moorhead with the Essentia Health Clinic, with, um, The Loop having the, the walking track in there, and that's where people are gonna find their community.

And when you find community, when you're all part of something, um, that's really where people can get on that road to, to recovery and health and getting assistance.