Copyright Star Tribune
HealthPartners is seeking state permission to expand Regions Hospital in St. Paul by as much as 85 beds, a response to rising patient demand and the closing of some inpatient units at nearby hospitals. The request in some ways contradicts Minnesota health care leaders, who have claimed hospitals have plenty of open beds but not enough doctors and nurses to staff them. In a public filing, HealthPartners, which owns Regions, said the hospital is often overcrowded. That complicates its role as a safety-net hospital for Ramsey County and as one of the Twin Cities’ three major trauma centers. Adding beds would expand the hospital’s “ability to deliver existing services — such as trauma, critical care, cardiology, surgery and hospital medicine — with greater reliability and fewer delays,” wrote Regions President Emily Blomberg in a request to the state. Hospital expansion can sometimes address unmet needs in a community, but it can also result in redundant health care services or a hiring battle for a limited number of doctors and nurses. Both can contribute to rising medical costs and insurance premiums, which is why Minnesota has a moratorium on hospital construction and expansion. Regions’ expansion, if approved, would come in phases, starting with 21 beds for a boarding unit that moves patients out of inpatient beds and emergency rooms when they no longer need those levels of care. A lack of such options in the Twin Cities has left patients stuck for days longer than necessary in costly hospital beds. Regions would then add 12-bed inpatient units in the next eight years to help accommodate an aging population that will likely bring more complex illnesses in need of longer stays to the hospital. Each 12-bed unit would cost as much as $9 million. Regions gained state approval in 2017 and 2021 to expand, partly to offset the closure of the nearby St. Joseph’s Hospital. An exception also allowed Fairview Health to partner with Acadia Healthcare to open the Capital Park Mental Health Hospital in St. Paul. Minnesota blocked a proposal two decades ago for a mental health hospital in Woodbury, arguing that the state needed lower-cost outpatient services more than higher-cost inpatient psychiatric beds. The organization behind that request later became known as PrairieCare and successfully petitioned to build and then expand a psychiatric hospital in Brooklyn Park for children and young adults. Minnesota has granted hospitals licenses to operate 16,223 beds in total, according to the most recent publicly available state data, but hospitals were using only 11,518 beds in 2023. The number of beds in use has trended downward in the past decade because of staffing and financial challenges but also because of improvements in surgeries that allow for more outpatient procedures in clinics. Mayo Clinic in Rochester is licensed for more than 2,000 beds but is using only about 1,300. United Hospital in St. Paul is operating well below its licensed capacity of 603 beds. Regions, by comparison, was using 542 of its 554 licensed beds in 2023. The hospital is operating routinely at 95% capacity, which is well above the ideal of 85%, HealthPartners said in its public request. Research has found delayed care of stroke, traumatic injuries and heart attacks when hospitals operate above that threshold. Minnesota needs more places to transfer patients to continue their recoveries when they are stable enough to leave hospitals, Blomberg said in a statement. But the state needs more hospital beds for its aging population, too. Regions will be “severely constrained” without the expansion, she said, adding “overcrowding will be the norm if we are not able to expand capacity and care for those in need as well as prepare for future needs.” State health economists forwarded the proposal for public comment and legislative consideration after receiving assurances from HealthPartners that the expansion wouldn’t come at the expense of the hospital’s mental health bed capacity. Provided/M Health Fairview The contract impasse, over Fairview’s demand for a 23% price hike over three years in employer coverage, comes after the parties resolved a dispute over Medicare Advantage patients.
