About Breakwater Health Network

What business are you in?

By becoming one, we can do more.

Our essential mission is to help rural and small urban community health centers (CHCs) keep in-step with the ever-changing healthcare field. To do so, we’re in the business of collaboration. We’re not just CHC leaders coming together to exchange ideas and challenges. We’re not just a nonprofit health center controlled network (HCCN). We’re a team of tenacious problem solvers. A large portion of our energy goes toward providing synergy and support on the health information technology (HIT) front, but we’ve grown beyond just technology. We’ve evolved into a support network that works together for the all-around benefit of our clinics. And ultimately, for the welfare of our members’ patients.

Why was your organization created?

To combine resources for the greater good.

Together, we are able to navigate the needs of our systems and our employees, and therefore, make sure our clinics never get left behind the times. We help make sure every patient gets the best healthcare possible. It all started with Thursdays. Two rural community clinic CEOs would meet to discuss issues that they were facing. They soon realized that by teaming up, they’d have a better chance at getting the funding and HIT capabilities they desperately needed. This shared effort led to funding for several systems that would have taken years to acquire independently. It also cemented their partnership by connecting them through a shared electronic medical records system (EMR). The Northern Minnesota Network (NMN)—now Breakwater Health Network—incorporated in 2004 and since then has greatly expanded its abilities and service area.

Currently, Breakwater serves four Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Migrant Health Centers that have clinic locations in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. It’s efficiency that brought us together, and it’s effectiveness and purpose that keeps us together.

What are your most important goals?

Be the undercurrent driving improvement.

It all comes down to our patients. At our core, every person on our board is going out of their way to benefit our clinics. Because by improving our clinics, we can improve our patients experiences and health. Our constant goal must be to find efficiencies that ensure our clinics are set up for success. That takes funding and collaboration. To get better, we must provide ROI. Members should feel support within the network; that it is a place they can share pain points and find answers. It’s a place from where we can foresee future problems and work to prevent them. And it’s a monetary benefit. As a collective, we can share resources and negotiate rates.

Who is your target?

The people who are invested in quality healthcare.

This includes both our funders and our members. On the funding level, this means federal, state and local grantors who share our same goals. We apply for grants that were specifically created to improve safety net healthcare systems in the U.S. Our members’ values mirror our own. They invest their time and energy into our network because they believe in us. Our causes are aligned and together we make up a network ensuring that everyone gets the best possible care.

What do you do better than anyone else?

Fulfill the needs of our health systems through positive collaboration.

We’re bigger than a network. We’re brave, optimistic leaders with a shared sense of purpose. We understand the challenges rural and small urban healthcare systems face, and we use our knowledge and collaboration to corral our systems for the greater good. This combination makes us a force to be reckoned with—and a catalyst toward ensuring high quality healthcare for everyone.

What trends and changes affect your team?

The pacemakers.

There are those who orchestrate changes outside of our control and impact the pace and landscape of healthcare. These catalysts range from legislators to healthcare technology vendors. We’re constantly adapting to their decisions, their updates and their requirements. It’s our job to keep up with these changes, so our clinics can focus on their patients. What values and beliefs unify your team? It takes a team to provide high-quality care for everyone. We believe in the power of collaboration—and the value of never being noticed. Because when we take care of the details, our members’ staff can focus on their patients. We’re united in our dedication to the greater good of everyone. To us, everyone deserves a healthy, happy life, and we’re here to make sure our system can churn out greater outcomes for clinic employees at every level and for every patient. We appreciate hard work, imagination—and even whining. Because within every whine is a crack in the system waiting to be fixed.