Possible hospital merger in Mass. could accelerate trend toward consolidation

News outlets also report on another hospital merger as well as how a Minnesota psychiatric hospital gathered the necessary funds and support to be built.

The Boston Globe: Northeast Hospital Ponders Sale, Merger
Northeast Hospital Corp. in Beverly is exploring a merger or sale to a larger health care system, a move that would accelerate a trend toward hospital consolidation in Massachusetts and reshape the health care landscape on the North Shore and Cape Ann. So far, Northeast has talked to two nonprofit hospitals and a pair of for-profit companies. It owns Beverly Hospital, Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester, BayRidge psychiatric hospital in Lynn, and a Danvers outpatient clinic (Weisman, 1/21).

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland, Packard Children's Hospitals May Merge
Word on the medical street is that Children's Hospital Oakland may be merging with Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto. "It's out there that we're being bought by Packard," said a knowledgeable source inside the 190-bed Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland. Another source connected to both facilities denied reports of an outright acquisition, calling it a "strategic alliance" (Ross, 1/20).

Star Tribune: How Did Maple Grove Hospital Get Built?
Prairie St. John's had few allies in 2008 when it proposed a 144-bed psychiatric hospital in Woodbury to fill a state shortage of mental health beds. Competing hospitals accused the Fargo-based mental health organization of choosing a suburban site to cherry-pick affluent patients and leave the uninsured to others. The state Health Department also opposed the project, arguing that Minnesota needed outpatient programs instead to reduce the need for costly inpatient care (Olson, 1/20).