Scott Wordelman, Chief Executive Officer
Fairview Redwing Health Center, Wyoming, Minnesota

Donald K. Lemonds, Medical Planner
JMGR Inc.,Memphis, Tennessee

Howard Goltz, Project Manager
Setter Leach & Lindstrom, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota

This paper describes the driving forces, planning, and design process that led to the creation of the Fairview Lakes Regional Medical Center. The Center represents a new health care model that integrates preventive care, outpatient services, and inpatient services into a single, new regional facility in Wyoming, Minnesota, a rapidly growing area north of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Background
The pressure for health care reform has led to the rise of managed health care and has forced hospitals and physicians to look for more efficient ways to deliver services. In Minnesota, managed care makes up more than three-quarters of the marketplace. Several years ago, the state responded with Minnesota Care, a system for controlling costs and for improving access to health care for uninsured patients. The program imposed a tax on hospitals and other providers, and required that the rate of growth in health care costs be reduced by 10 percent annually. It also encouraged the development of Integrated Service Networks (ISN), which link hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers. Although ISN legislation was never fully enacted, it led to a "merger mania." Looking for ways to share the risks imposed on health care providers by managed care, physician groups began to merge with hospital systems and with one another. In turn, hospitals and physicians merged with third-party payers to capture and control a share of the marketplace.

Chisago Health Services was a result of the merger mania and the trend to "do more with less." Established in 1986, Chisago Health Services was located in a rapidly growing part of Minnesota within commuting distance of the Twin Cities. The system was originally comprised of a 49-bed hospital, 40-bed nursing home, home health care agency, and three physicians' clinics. In 1988, the organization recruited additional physicians and expanded its services.

Abstract

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