Star Tribune
Record $25 million gift will help upgrade Abbott Northwestern surgery, critical care capabilities
A historically large donation is financing Allina Health’s historically large expansion of surgery and critical care services in Minneapolis.
The foundation of Best Buy founder Richard Schulze will announce Thursday that it’s committing $25 million to Allina’s 10-story expansion of Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. The donation is the largest in Allina’s history and will support a project that is just underway — with webcams showing the demolition of a parking garage to make room.
“Normally we’re not big proponents about investing money in hospitals,” Schulze, 82, said in an interview ahead of Thursday’s announcement. “[But] I’m a big believer in what’s going on at Abbott Northwestern.”
The billionaire businessman said he was drawn to support Abbott Northwestern for its work expanding critical care, a high-intensity specialty that treats life-threatening illnesses and injuries.
Thirty large operating suites will replace some of the cramped confines in the hospital and make space for new surgical technology and techniques. The new tower will include four floors of single-patient rooms, replacing older rooms.
The donation reflects a pivot by Schulze’s foundation away from funding research on regenerative medicine — the search for treatments that restore function in damaged organs and tissues — and toward health care access. Recent donations include $5.5 million to Children’s Minnesota for its neurosciences program and $20 million for a new heart and stroke center in Naples, Fla., which will collaborate virtually with Allina’s experts in Minnesota on patient care.
“We do invest in areas where we think there’s a high probability of success. Unfortunately [research has] not been a winning formula for us so we’ve moved more in the direction of health and wellness … treatment of patients,” Schulze said. “We think treatment for patients with a wide variety of conditions is a better way to spend our money.”
The funding is a boost for Allina, which like many hospital systems is facing financial challenges even as it upgrades its flagship Minneapolis hospital and other facilities. The provider reported a $148 million loss in the second quarter of 2023 on the operation of 12 hospital campuses and more than 60 primary care clinics across central Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
Financial woes prompted the health system earlier this year to delay plans to replace its Cambridge, Minn., hospital.
Schulze said it may be risky to invest in a struggling health care organization, but, “anything you’re doing in the world of medicine today is risky.”
The addition of inpatient beds, other than psychiatric beds, requires a state health review followed by a legislative waiver to Minnesota’s hospital construction moratorium to prevent wasteful excess capacity. The Abbott expansion is the largest construction project in Allina’s history, but didn’t require review because it will replace existing beds.
Allina’s board voted in 2022 to authorize $1.2 billion in spending through bonds and other funding mechanisms to build the tower.
Abbott is licensed for 972 beds, making it Minnesota’s third largest hospital by inpatient capacity, but only 638 beds were in use in 2021, according to the most recent state data.
Allina leaders are scheduled to offer more details at a groundbreaking Thursday afternoon for the project, which will be part of a broader reorganization of the Abbott campus. An expanded parking ramp will open south of the hospital campus, which will be redesigned with new roadway entrances and underground walking tunnels to connect the buildings, according to plans filed with the city of Minneapolis.
Mark Dienhart, chief executive of the Edina-based Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, said the foundation may end up doling out more money to hospitals in Minnesota and Florida, where Schulze now lives.
“He wants to see the positive results from what he gives away in the here and now … rather than betting on something very complex happening,” Dienhart said of the shift away from funding research. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see these kinds of things continue.”
A 65-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed by a pickup truck near Christmas Lake Friday afternoon as she was walking through a crosswalk, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
The woman was crossing Highway 7 around 1 p.m. when she was hit by a 2019 Ford F-150 turning left from Christmas Lake Road onto the highway headed east, the State Patrol said in its report. The intersection is just east of Excelsior, between Saint Albans Bay and Christmas Lake west of Minneapolis.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Minnetonka police, and other agencies responded to the fatal collision. The State Patrol has not released the identity of the pedestrian.
The driver has not been arrested. Agencies are still investigating the collision, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Alcohol was not involved in the crash, the State Patrol said.
Former trooper Shane Roper, 32, had his last day Tuesday, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Roper’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Friday evening.
In July, Roper was charged with criminal vehicular homicide and manslaughter. He was also charged with criminal vehicle operation related to five other people who were seriously injured in the incident.
The criminal complaint states that Roper had been pursuing someone “suspected of committing a petty traffic offense” as he exited Hwy. 52 onto 12th Street SW. As he neared the intersection with Apache Drive, he reportedly turned his lights off and continued to accelerate with a fully engaged throttle.
Roper was traveling at 83 mph with his lights and siren off as he approached the intersection, a Rochester police investigation found. The trooper’s squad car slammed into the passenger side of a car occupied by Olivia Flores, which was heading west and turning into the mall.
Flores died from the blunt force injuries. She was an Owatonna High School cheerleader and set to graduate June 7. There were two other people in the car with Flores.
Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem said in a statement following the charges that Roper violated his duty in “a gross fashion.”
Roper told investigators he was not paying attention to his speed at the time of the crash, and that he believed his lights were still activated when he exited the highway.
Steven Frane Bailey, 56, of St. Louis Park was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation. His blood alcohol content measured at 0.325% after officers administered a preliminary breath test at HCMC, according to charges filed in Hennepin County District Court.
In his first court appearance Wednesday, Bailey told a judge his use of alcohol is not a problem. He has an extensive history of drunken driving convictions, starting in 1985 in Wisconsin. Additional convictions followed in Wabasha County in 1993 and Hennepin County in 1998, according to court records. Two more convictions followed in 2014 and 2015.
A Hennepin County judge set his bail at $500,000 with several conditions, including that Bailey take a substance use disorder assessment, that he abstain from drinking alcohol, avoid Park Tavern and stay away from the victims and his family.
His next court appearance is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 1.
Staff writers Paul Walsh and Jeff Day contributed to this report.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings