News Release
Nov. 29, 2023
Public meeting scheduled for December 6 on two proposed specialty hospitals
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is holding a virtual public meeting on Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. to receive public comment on two proposals for the establishment of new specialty hospitals in Ramsey County. There is no loss of services with these proposed changes.
While Minnesota has a moratorium on adding new hospitals or hospital beds (MN Statutes, Section 144.551), the legislature has a process for considering granting exceptions to this moratorium. To provide context for legislative decision making, Minnesota State Law (MN Statutes, Section 144.552) requires MDH to conduct a review to assess whether proposals are in the public interest.
Nobis Rehabilitation Partners has requested to establish a new free-standing 60-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Roseville. The new hospital would focus on providing intensive rehabilitation services (e.g., physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy) to patients who have experienced an illness or injury requiring these services on a long-term basis.
Regency Hospital is seeking to open a second campus of its Golden Valley long-term acute care hospital on the Regions Hospital Campus in St. Paul. The proposal relocates 26 hospital beds from Golden Valley to St. Paul but does not increase Regency Hospital’s total number of licensed beds.
Additional details associated with the public interest review and information submitted by entities seeking an exception to the moratorium is available online at MDH’s Hospital Bed Moratorium website.
The meeting on Dec. 6 is open to the public. All are welcome to express their views on the proposed hospitals. Details about how to join the public meeting are available on the Hospital Public Interest Review website.
Guided by state law, MDH is particularly interested in feedback on the following points:
- Whether the new hospitals are needed to provide timely access to care or access to new or improved services.
- The extent to which the new hospitals would have financial and staffing impacts on existing hospitals in the region.
- The extent to which the new hospitals would provide services to non-paying or low-income patients relative to the level of services provided to these groups by existing hospitals in the region.
Those interested in providing written comments may do so by completing the Online Public Comment Form for Proposed Hospitals or by sending an email to health.pir@state.mn.us by Jan. 5, 2024.
MDH expects to complete its public interest review on the proposals in the spring of 2024.
-MDH-
Media inquiries:
Garry Bowman
MDH Communications
651-529-5164
garry.bowman@state.mn.us