The Hidden Hospital: Power, Money, and the Fight for Academic Medicine
When you see "University of Minnesota Medical Center" above a hospital entrance, you assume it's where the state's brightest medical minds teach, research, and heal. But what if that prestigious name is just branding, and the reality underneath is far more complicated?
In this episode, we investigate a 30-year power struggle that began with a desperate financial rescue and has now erupted into a full-blown institutional crisis. In 1997, the University of Minnesota sold its failing hospital to Fairview Health Services for $87.5 million, and even paid them $20 million to take it. The deal was supposed to save academic medicine in Minnesota. Instead, it set the stage for a slow-motion divorce.
What you'll learn:
This isn't just about Minnesota. It's about what we lose when healthcare becomes purely business, and why the deals we make in crisis can reshape our future in ways we don't understand until it's too late.
This is an AI generated podcast from most current available sources.