Allina Health System is merging under one license two acute care hospitals in Anoka County, as the Minneapolis-based system tries to eliminate duplicate services at the nearby medical centers.
Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids and Unity Hospital in Fridley will continue distinct operations, but the smaller medical center in Fridley next year will take the name "Mercy Hospital — Unity Campus."
Last year, Allina moved labor and delivery out of Unity and shifted the business to a new maternity unit at Mercy. Now, the health system is spending $17.5 million to move mental health care service from Mercy to a larger, consolidated program at Unity.
"It's one hospital with two buildings," said David Kanihan, an Allina spokesman. "They're separate by 10 miles, but they're serving essentially the same market. The vision is to have very little duplication of services."
Both hospitals will continue to operate emergency rooms and offer some common services, Kanihan said, but the general idea is: "You can't do everything at both places."
A growing number of health systems are merging nearby hospitals under one license so they can operate the medical centers more efficiently, said Allan Baumgarten, an independent health care analyst in St. Louis Park.
It's possible that Anoka County residents will view the changes at Unity as something of a downgrading, Baumgarten said, as maternity programs often are seen as key for hospitals in developing lifelong relationships with patient families. Mental health services, meanwhile, don't usually command rich reimbursements from insurers, he said.
"This is a logical direction for hospitals that are geographically relatively close, and is something seen around the country," Baumgarten said.
