Stillwater’s Lakeview Hospital, Minnesota’s oldest, has been a cornerstone of care in the region since 1880. Caring for just a few patients at first, we’ve grown with our community over the years. And the need for our services continues to grow as the number of residents aged 65 and older in our area is expected to increase by 20% over the next five years.
Much of our current hospital campus dates to the late 1960s or earlier. We’ve known for some time that emerging needs for care would exceed the capacities of our current hospital campus. Last year, we began active planning to build a new hospital campus just a few miles from our current facility. Building a new hospital is an exciting opportunity, and we’re now engaging with our community to make sure our new facility will meet the needs of our area for years to come.
One key aspect of this engagement relates to a proposal now pending at the Minnesota State Legislature.
Sen. Karin Housley and Rep. Josiah Hill are chief authors of a bipartisan proposal (SF3674/HF3817) to make an important change to Minnesota’s Hospital Constructions Moratorium. The change would allow hospitals like ours to transfer up to 100 existing bed licenses to a new facility within five miles. Current law allows for the relocation of only up to 70 bed licenses for a replacement hospital.
The needs we hope to meet with the new Lakeview Hospital are a good case in point for why passage of this legislation matters now. With the physical limitations of our current campus, we can use only 68 of our 97 licensed beds. The new location allows us to maximize existing license capacity, but without this legislation we are limited to the 70-bed replacement limit in current law, and we would lose sorely needed bed license capacity for the east metro. That would be a tragedy for a growing community that needs more inpatient hospital beds now.
Lakeview Hospital is planning a new $400M Stillwater campus and wants your input
The benefits of this legislation extend beyond our hospital. As community hospitals close their doors here in Minnesota and across the nation, the demand for care at those remaining hospitals is increasing. The need to support community hospitals has never been more urgent. By enabling community hospitals like Lakeview to maximize use of existing licenses, we can keep care closer to home when possible and alleviate the pressure on larger tertiary hospitals providing higher-level, more specialized care for the region’s most acute patients.
We urge our community members, policymakers, and fellow health care providers to support the passing of this legislation. Doing so will help secure the future of Lakeview Hospital, as well as other hospitals like ours. It will also ensure the community continues to have access to exceptional health care services close to their homes.
Mike Anderson is chair of the Lakeview Hospital Community Board and retired director of HR Global Benefits, 3M. Brandi Lunneborg is president of Lakeview Hospital. Phil Donaldson, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Andersen Corporation, is chair of the HealthPartners Board of Directors and co-chair of Lakeview Hospital capital campaign.
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