4 October 2023
At United Hospital in St. Paul, a 10-bed children’s and adolescent mental health unit has been closed and will reopen as an adult inpatient unit after construction.
The 10 youth in-patient beds will be transferred to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, which maintains an established inpatient mental health program for adults and adolescents. The overall number of beds for youth will stay the same and be consolidated on one campus, according to a hospital spokesperson.
That’s not to say mental health treatment for minors is over at United. The downtown St. Paul hospital will continue to offer an adolescent partial hospitalization program and intensive outpatient program that uses a combination of care settings, largely allowing children under treatment to remain at home with their families.
“We are continually assessing how to best meet the needs of the patients we serve,” said a spokesperson, in a written statement. “As a result, we have made the decision to transition United Hospital’s inpatient child and adolescent mental health services to Abbott Northwestern Hospital to continue to appropriately meet the demand for inpatient mental health services for this patient population, who come to us for care from across the state.”
Service changes also are impacting Abbott Northwestern. The outpatient infusion services unit — which helps manage conditions using intravenous drugs, iron, hydration and IV starts — will close Oct. 20. Patients can transition to two other infusion sites in Minneapolis, including the Allina Health Cancer Institute Infusion Center or the Abbott Northwestern Hospital Observation Unit. There are additional Allina Health infusion centers located in the metro area.
The space is being freed up to add beds for inpatient cardiology, neurology and oncology patients.
“This decision reflects the changing health care needs of our community and the necessary evolution of how we utilize our facilities to ensure we can meet the care needs of those we serve,” reads a statement from the hospital.
On Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Nurses Association — the labor union representing registered nurses — said they would prepare a formal statement about the changes happening within the Allina system by the afternoon.
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