After facing competition from Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services, Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health opted to invest $14 million in expansion plans, according to Star Tribune.
Here are five key points:
1. With part of the investment, Essential Health will buy a minority ownership stake in Grand Rapids, Minn.-based Lakewood Surgery Center.
2. Lakewood Surgery Center is across the street from a hospital Fairview owns. Fairview signed a merger agreement nearly a year ago and assumed ownership in a Grand Rapid hospital, creating more competition for Essentia Health.
3. Operating in the area for 11 years, the partnership will help Lakewood Surgery Center expand its services to patients, according to Dan Margo, MD, a general surgeon with the ASC.
4. Healthcare analyst Allan Baumgarten, told Star Tribune, "Essentia, which is already present in that part of north-central Minnesota, has determined that it's in its interest to expand that presence — no doubt motivated in part by the new competition from Fairview."
5. Essentia is also planning a 25,000-square-foot expansion to its health clinic in Grand Rapids.