Interview

Improving the Health of All People

Lisa Shannon, CEO, Allina Health

Taking over from Penny Wheeler are some big shoes to fill. What can you tell us about how she has helped you to continue her legacy?

I feel an incredible pride and honor to be able to lead Allina Health at this time following Dr. Penny Wheeler, who is a tremendous leader for our organization and who brought me to the organization. I am privileged to have been able to work alongside Penny for the last four years. She has been an exceptional leader, mentor and friend and I am grateful she is extending her service as a member of our Board of Directors. 

As I look to the future, I hope to accelerate the foundation we have laid as an organization to ensure every part of our system works in coordination to provide a seamless experience for our patients, while continuing our momentum to change how health care is delivered to serve all patients and create more access and greater affordability. 

What can you share about how the Allina Health Aetna partnership has developed?

Allina Health/Aetna was developed as a way to bring together two health care organizations with proven reputations for caring for the community with a goal of delivering an expert, cost-effective, personal and more comprehensive approach to health and wellness. Some examples of how we are delivering value-based care to patients are alignment on incentives and motivations to optimize patient health, sharing of real time clinical data to ensure holistic and personalized care and creating a streamlined patient experience by cross collaboration of our customer experience teams.

Listening to all voices is critical to providing the highest quality, compassionate care.

Please tell us about the new Allina Health Cancer Institute?

The Allina Health Cancer Institute redefines how cancer care is delivered by providing comprehensive, expert cancer care that puts patients at the center and surrounds them with dedicated and compassionate caregivers, who work as a coordinated team to provide treatment and remove stress and inconvenience, allowing our patients to focus on healing.

We recognize that cancer care can be complex and overwhelming–that’s why we’ve set out to reimagine cancer care by taking the right steps to ensure that every part of our system works in coordination to create an effortless care experience that fits the lives of our patients and their families. We believe a seamless cancer care experience is one of the most important services we can provide.

The unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 are now echoed by the Omicron variant. What stands out in your mind around how Allina has reacted to the ongoing pandemic?

Our teams are 100% committed to caring for the communities we serve. They are not only dedicated to providing high-quality, compassionate care to our patients; they are deeply dedicated to each other. Our teams set a high bar for themselves, and they consistently strive to be best at what they do.

The resiliency and humanity I have witnessed, despite how fatigued and challenged our teams have felt, is nothing short of remarkable. Our teams have come together and rallied to continue caring for our community in the most challenging of circumstances–we quickly pivoted to virtual care, found new ways to connect patients to their loved ones during times when we couldn’t have them at the bedside and quickly implemented important safety measures as part of our Safe Care Commitment to assure our patients it was safe to receive the in-person care they need, whenever they needed it.

I’m inspired by our entire team because it is truly extraordinary to watch the compassionate work that everyone is involved in, not only in the pandemic, but prior to COVID-19 and for countless other care needs that our community has.

Another challenge that has become front and center is health care equity/social disparities in health care. How has Allina addressed these issues? 

For our organization, the interlocking crises of a global pandemic, economic inequality and systemic racism have led us to an inflection point in how we seek to understand our role as a health care provider—to facilitate change for those we are privileged to employ and serve across Minnesota and the region. We are committed to eliminating racial disparities and inequities in care for all. As an organization, we have implemented a DE&I council that I lead, created an operations committee that includes representatives from teams such as human resources and community partnerships and we’ve developed employee resource groups to empower employees at every level to become advocates.

Our DE&I goal is to improve the health of all people in our communities by using our collective strength as a care provider, employer, purchaser and community partner to eliminate systemic inequities and racism. We acknowledge this is a long-term journey, and as an institution we have much to learn.

Please tell us about the Allina Integrated Medical (AIM) Network.

The Allina Integrated Medical Network brings together physicians and Allina Health to provide market-leading quality and efficiency in patient care by ensuring patients have easy access to quality, affordable health care. The network is positioned to support the achievement of better collaboration and integration across the continuum of care through technology, contracts and support services.

Allina is very active in the field of medical research. While there are too many outstanding projects to cite which ones come to mind first?

One of the most important clinical trials we conducted was the ENSEMBLE study. Allina Health was the only clinical trial site in Minnesota to participate in Janssen Pharmaceutical’s (part of Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine study, during phase 3 of its clinical trial. Our commitment to clinical research has remained steadfast during the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Allina Health Research team was well-positioned to meet the rapidly evolving COVID-19 research needs in support of our employees and the communities we serve. Through our partnerships with other organizations and the robust research infrastructure built over many years, we have been able to quickly pivot to a research team focused on understanding COVID-19 treatments, protocols and safety, while safely continuing our many other areas of research.

Physician burnout has been on the minds of many health care organizations. While clearly it is even more important now, what are some of ways Allina is dealing with these issues?

We respect and value the important contributions of all our employees, and we recognize it is a very challenging time and our caregivers are weary mentally and physically. We are focused on supporting our entire team through mental health and well-being programs, benefits, pay, career development and more. We are and will continue to listen to what’s most important to our employees. Bringing Whole Person Care to life for those who serve is an important part of our ongoing commitment and one of my highest priorities.

What are the biggest challenges you see in the future for Allina and health care delivery as a whole?

Throughout my entire career, I have remained passionate about quality care and elevating the voices and expertise of those who are doing the work to deliver on our caring mission. Each of us–employees, patients and community–members have a role to play in creating health care that works for all of us.

This is more important now than ever as we navigate through some of the most challenging times that health care has faced in decades. And yet, these same challenges present us with opportunities to learn and adjust how we can better provide more seamless, affordable, accessible quality care. I believe that listening to all voices is critical to providing the highest quality, compassionate care for the communities we serve.

Lisa Shannon, is president and chief executive officer of Allina Health. Prior to her appointment as CEO she served as president and chief operating officer. Before joining Allina Health, she held the roles of chief operating officer and president of health system delivery, for KentuckyOne Health, the largest integrated health system in Kentucky.