Public comment session on proposed specialty hospitals in Roseville, St. Paul set for Wednesday

Kilat Fitzgerald KSTP

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is hosting a remote public comment session on the opening of two proposed specialty hospitals in Ramsey County on Wednesday night.

The meeting is set to begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday. CLICK HERE for details on how to join, including the meeting link.

Written comments can also be submitted by completing this form or by sending an email to health.pir@state.mn.us by Jan. 5, 2024.

One proposal comes from Nobis Rehabilitation Partners, which is requesting a 60-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital to be opened in Roseville. MDH said this new hospital would focus on providing intensive rehabilitation services to patients who need physical, occupational and speech therapy to patients who need the services on a long-term basis.

The other proposal comes from Regency Hospital, which hopes to open a long-term acute care hospital on the Regions Hospital Campus in St. Paul. This would be in addition to the Golden Valley campus already in service. If approved, 26 hospital beds would be relocated from Golden Valley to St. Paul without increasing Regency Hospital’s total number of licensed beds, according to the MDH news release.

MDH said in a news release it hopes to seek 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.

MDH said it expects the public interest review to be complete by the spring of 2024.

Minnesota currently has a moratorium on adding new hospitals or hospital beds. However, the legislature has a process for considering exceptions to the moratorium. That includes conducting a review on whether or not the proposals serve the public interest.