(ABC 6 News) – Healthcare providers from southeast Minnesota met at the Hormel Institute in Austin on Tuesday for a roundtable discussion with U.S. Representative Brad Finstad (R-MN).

The roundtable is a way for providers to share common issues faced across the region and brainstorm solutions together.

“It’s a complexity, you know, in healthcare of all of these different issues, they all play together,” said Rachelle Schultz, President and CEO of Winona Health.

Participants say it breeds greater innovation because when one healthcare agency shares what solutions work for them, it can inspire another to look at a similar problem in a new way.

Though a number of concerns were addressed at the roundtable, one issue brought up again and again was the ongoing workforce shortage.

“One of the biggest challenges that we have in rural America and that’s the shortage of the volunteering and the need for more folks to work in our ambulance services,” said Finstad.

However, many local agencies are already taking steps to fix this in the long term.

“There’s the local partnerships that we have with schools, you know, whether those are the colleges and tech colleges that we have, or universities in our respective communities, or even like the high schools and getting people, some of these kids interested in healthcare, you know, careers earlier,” said Schultz.

Like most Americans, another big issue facing hospitals is inflation.

“Everything from tissues to the materials that are used in the infrastructure of hospitals,” said Finstad.

Something new the roundtable shed light on is how the mental health crisis is spilling into emergency rooms.

“We found a gap,” said Schultz. “Somebody who could just be there in the moment, help somebody navigate the different services and how you qualify for those services, whether it’s at this organization, or at the county or at the hospital.”

Despite the issues raised at the roundtable, participants remain optimistic about the future of healthcare in southeast Minnesota.

“You can’t help but be excited and hopeful. We are the home of innovation,” said Finstad. “We have great providers, and ultimately at the end of the day we have great neighbors that are committing their lives to serving us.”

Healthcare providers at the roundtable say they’re grateful for the chance to sit down with one another and their representative to keep these conversations going and improve the state of healthcare for everyone in our community.