Park, Allina Study New Suburban Clinic

MAPLE GROVE-Park Nicollet Health Services and Allina Hospitals & Clinics says they have signed a deal to look at possibly building a new clinic here. The two Twin Cities health care systems are in the process of completing a feasibility study and meeting with more than 100 community leaders and organizations over the past year to study the community’s health care needs.

Allina has had a primary care clinic in Maple Grove since 1983. Park Nicollet’s Maple Grove clinic opened in 1999 and expanded twice since then. St. Louis Park, MN-based Park Nicollet Health Services has a proposed site near the intersection of 95th Street and Interstate 94.

“Working together, we could use health care dollars more efficiently,” says David Wessner, president and chief executive officer of Park Nicollet Health Services.

Competition is building as to who will develop a major medical facility in this fast-growing suburb. Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services and Robbinsdale, MN -based North Memorial Health Care have proposed building a health care facility here.

Maple Grove and its surrounding communities comprise one of the fastest growing areas in the state, where population is expected to increase 23% by 2018. The feasibility study is expected to be completed this October and will likely include a review of inpatient bed needs for the community. Both systems’ boards of directors will review the study results and decide if the systems will move forward with planning.

Park Nicollet and Allina are joint owners, along with Benedictine Health System, of St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee, MN.