When presented with the opportunity to switch gears, Walsh seized the moment to leave the legal practice and join the Minnesota Health Department in a role as Assistant Commissioner. During a change in administration, Governor Carlson was interested in filling his cabinet with individuals spanning broad and deep experience in diverse areas. “I was selected to serve in that role, and, for me, that really opened up a lot of opportunities to learn and understand public policy in new ways. It tapped into my passion around healthcare,” shared Walsh.
In 1994, Andrea jumped back into healthcare and landed at HealthPartners, where she would hold numerous different roles across the organization. Her diverse experience, spanning from Government & Community Relations, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Chief Marketing Officer, prepared her to lead the company. “Having the opportunity to serve in a lot of different roles [helped me] to know and understand the needs of our patients, members, and colleagues in different ways. It’s been a really fantastic place for me to spend a career,” Walsh explained. While some organizations typecast employees into a particular role and path, HealthPartners encourages the opposite and supports employees in transferring across the organization to gain broader experience. “Being able to move around without being labeled has kept me – and many leaders – at HealthPartners,” she says while adding, “It’s intellectually challenging and leads to more fulfilling work.” MAINTAINING MOMENTUM For the past four years, Walsh has been at the helm of HealthPartners as CEO, helping the organization move forward in its mission to improve health and wellbeing. Like nearly every leader at the onset of the pandemic, Walsh faced – dare we say it – unprecedented circumstances. “One thing was clear – we needed to adapt quickly and use all of our capabilities to care for our members, patients, and colleagues and support their health,” stated Walsh.
The HealthPartners team did just that.
In the early phase of the pandemic, the organization moved to video visits in one week and trained over 2,000 clinicians to use Google Duo in a matter of four days. Within six weeks, video visits constituted half of all appointments. “By February [of 2021], we hit the one-millionth video visit mark!” exclaimed Walsh. HealthPartners offered telemedicine before the pandemic, but the entire healthcare industry underutilized the service. “For comparison, we had conducted a few hundred video visits before the pandemic, and we weren’t sure whether it could replace a telephone or in-person visit. Now we know how important video visits will be in the future,” she says.
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