EMILY — Essentia Health will temporarily suspend services at three Northern Minnesota clinics if advanced practice providers strike as planned Thursday, July 10.
The organization said the closures will help it "consolidate staff in locations where they can best meet patient needs." The clinics set to close are in Emily, Hackensack and Deerwood.
All pharmacy services are expected to continue.
Essentia advanced practice providers, or APPs, from northeastern Minnesota, the Brainerd lakes area and northwest Wisconsin filed a 10-day strike notice June 30. APPs treat patients and have similar responsibilities to physicians. They include nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified nurse midwives and clinical nurse specialists.
Essentia said it will share updates regarding access to care as plans for the potential work stoppage evolve.
"Essentia clinicians are reviewing patients who have scheduled appointments while services are paused at these clinics," according to a news release shared Monday evening.
"Our teams will prioritize those patients with more severe needs to ensure they can be seen and treated at the right time and as close to home as possible."
APPs voted to join the Minnesota Nurses Association in July 2024. The multi-facility bargaining unit was certified by the National Labor Relations Board, but Essentia has requested a review of that decision.
MNA said the health care organization is violating federal labor law by refusing to begin negotiations for a first contract. Essentia said the proposed APP bargaining unit is “uniquely problematic and wrongly constituted,” and it is exercising its legal right to a review.
The health care nonprofit argues that the size and scale of the APPs bargaining unit — over 400 providers across nine hospitals and 60 clinics — contradicts longstanding guidance from the labor relations board. Not separating hospital and clinic workers makes it challenging to maintain access to patient care in the event of a work stoppage, Essentia said.
An Essentia spokesperson said the concern isn't about unions in general.
"Our concern is with how this union is comprised," the spokesperson wrote in an email. "And we’ll always advocate for our patients and ensuring they continue to have access to high-quality health care."
Erin Swanson, a nurse practitioner in Baxter who is part of the APP’s negotiating team, previously told KAXE it makes sense for the APPs to be one bargaining unit because they work in clinics and hospitals, and many work in multiple clinics.
“There is not a certain box that we would fit in,” she said.
Across the facilities where APPs are striking, 44% of all patient encounters are with an APP, and 88% of all urgent care encounters are with an APP, according to Essentia. The numbers are higher in rural communities, which rely overwhelmingly on APPs for patient care.
Swanson said no one wants to strike, but this feels like the only way to get Essentia’s attention.
The APPs are very mindful of the potential impact of a strike, she said, and that’s why it has taken them so long to reach the point of calling for one.
“We all go into health care to take care of our patients,” Swanson said. “It’s very stressful. My hope is that Essentia doesn’t let it happen.”
