The Minnesota Department of Health is holding a virtual public meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday to gather public comment on two proposals for new specialty hospitals in Ramsey County.

The changes will not result in any loss of services, according to state officials.

While there is a moratorium on adding new hospitals or hospital beds in Minnesota, the Legislature has a process to weigh exceptions. State law requires the health department to assess whether new proposals serve the public interest.

Nobis Rehabilitation Partners has asked to build a new free-standing 60-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Roseville. The hospital would focus on providing intensive rehabilitation services — such as physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy — to those requiring these services long-term.

Meanwhile, Regency Hospital is seeking to open a second campus of its Golden Valley long-term acute care hospital to be located at the Regions Hospital Campus in St. Paul. The proposal would relocate 26 hospital beds from Golden Valley to St. Paul but would not increase Regency Hospital’s total number of licensed beds.

Additional details as well as a link to join the public meeting on Wednesday are available online at health.state.mn.us/data/economics/moratorium/index.html. The meeting is open to the public.

State health officials say they are particularly interested in feedback on:

• Whether the new hospitals are needed to provide timely access to care or access to new or improved services.

• The extent to which the new hospitals would have financial and staffing impacts on existing hospitals in the region.

• The extent to which the new hospitals would provide services to non-paying or low-income patients relative to the level of services provided to these groups by existing hospitals in the region.

Written comments can be submitted through the web site or by emailing to health.pir@state.mn.us by Jan. 5, 2024.

Heath officials expect to finish the public interest review on the proposals in the spring of 2024.

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