Twin Cities health care workers rally against cuts at Allina Health hospitals
FRIDLEY, Minn. — Doctors and nurses are sounding the alarm about cuts in one of Minnesota's big-time hospital systems.
Allina Health plans to close the ICU at its Fridley hospital and no longer do surgeries there. It also will get rid of its pediatric inpatient beds at its Coon Rapids hospital.
Dozens of healthcare workers gathered Wednesday to express their concerns.
"To the Allina administrators and board of directors...we implore you: Do not turn your back on our patients," said Dr. Kara Larson, an Allina pediatrician.
Not only will the changes cost many of the providers their jobs, but they say it will hurt families in the north Metro.
Serena Heidebrink, a mother from Isanti, says the Coon Rapids hospital saved her infant son's life last fall when he was having trouble breathing.
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If there weren't pediatric beds there, Heidebrink would've had to travel to the Twin Cities.
"When you have a serious emergency going on, to have to go down to Children's is literally a life or death situation for some kids," she said. "It would've been probably a death situation for him."
Allina says the decisions were about low numbers of patients and costly renovations.
The nonprofit's most recent tax filing from 2023 shows a loss of $28 million. It reported a positive net income in the five years before that.
There are 17 employees making more than $1 million.
Concerned providers say the cuts will create a care desert in the area.
Dr. Lisa Schweiger, a pediatrician at Allina's Cambridge Medical Center, says her hospital depends on the Coon Rapids hospital for basic admissions.
"If they weren't available, it would be a huge detriment to our community," she said.
Fewer than 5% of ICU beds in the metro are currently available, according to state data.
Allina Health provided WCCO with the following statement:
"Allina Health is repositioning care delivery at Mercy Hospital (Coon Rapids) and Mercy Hospital – Unity Campus (Fridley) to ensure both campuses are best equipped to support our patients and communities with high quality care well into the future.
"Several factors are driving the repositioning of services across both campuses. First and foremost, we are working to create additional access to care in the Northwest region by ensuring care is being delivered in the right place. The low volume of ICU patients and the extensive and costly renovations needed to the operating rooms at our Unity campus required us to think holistically about how we can sustainably deliver care in the Northwest Metro, inclusive of the two hospital campuses, clinics and ambulatory surgery centers. By moving ICU and surgical care to the Mercy campus, we are creating the opportunity to increase access to certain services at our Unity campus that are a critically important part of the solution to the state's persistent patient boarding issue.
"We have experienced a declining volume of inpatient pediatric patients in our two dedicated pediatric beds and have been working closely with physician and operational leaders at Mercy Hospital to refine the model for pediatric care. The new pediatric care model will continue to include daytime coverage by pediatric hospitalists in the newborn nursery and Emergency Department. We are dedicated to providing the same excellent overnight pediatric coverage model that is present at our other metro hospitals to ensure seamless care delivery. NICU and clinic-based pediatric newborn rounding will continue with no changes to the model that exists today. We will continue to work with our provider partners in the community to ensure care pathways.
"We are dedicated to working with staff impacted by these changes, and we hope the majority of them will remain Allina Health employees."