Essentia again ranks among Minnesota's best for quality care

Minnesota Community Measurement (MNCM) – a statewide resource providing timely, comparable information on healthcare quality, costs and equity – once again ranks Essentia Health as a quality leader in its annual Health Care Quality Report.

“Kudos to our care teams for their commitment to high-quality care,” said Kailee Kofal, quality vice president at Essentia. “This report exemplifies the impact they make on thousands of patients and the lives they save within the communities we are privileged to serve.”

For care provided in 2024, MNCM rated Essentia as a “performance leader” in 10 different categories. Performance leaders are health systems performing above MNCM’s expectations for two consecutive years, which shows a strong commitment to exceptional care and improving patient outcomes.

MNCM rated Essentia as a performance leader for:

• Adolescent depression: Remission at six months.
• Controlling high blood pressure.
• Adolescent mental health screening.
• Eye exam for patients with diabetes.
• Adult depression: Remission at six months.
• Optimal asthma control — children.
• Breast cancer screening.
• Optimal asthma control — adults.
• Colorectal cancer screening.
• Optimal diabetes care.

The MNCM report aims to help patients understand how care varies across providers. Essentia is proud to consistently rank among the best performing systems in the state.

Among 31 medical groups recognized as performance leaders in at least one category, the seven bolded metrics above represent the most Performance Leader designations given to any single organization for measures reported by medical groups. Two other Minnesota systems had six such designations.

While there certainly are opportunities for improvement and learnings, Essentia colleagues and care teams deserve praise for being Performance Leaders.

“That Essentia earned 10 performance leader designations really speaks to the teamwork and dedication of all our colleagues,” said Dr. Maria Beaver, chief quality and patient safety officer at Essentia. “While we continue to set a high bar for our clinical quality goals, this recognition reinforces the strength of our work and the meaningful impact on patient outcomes and experiences. We will remain focused on closing gaps and continuously delivering the best possible care to our patients.”

Essentia uses these measurements to align with and shape our Clinical Quality Dashboard. They also provide an independent yearly assessment of our progress in meeting our Aspirational Aim to Achieve Health and Vitality with our Communities.

Read more about Essentia's success in the Health Care Quality Report in 2023, 2024 and 2025.