Minneapolis’ public hospital plans to cut 100 beds in latest HCMC budget cuts

Hennepin Healthcare is planning to reduce its volume of hospital care at HCMC in Minneapolis to help close a $50 million budget gap by the end of March.

Currently, patients are using 435 of 490 total beds at the safety net hospital, officials said, but the volume going forward will be capped at just 390 beds.

The reduction will come as patients are discharged.

“Effective immediately, we’re reducing in-patient beds by approximately 100 beds,” interim co-administrators Dr. J. Kevin Croston and David Hough said in a Feb. 11 message to employees obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Hennepin Healthcare says it’s also pausing more than $24 million in new capital spending projects and will suspend contributions to retirement funds for a subset of workers. Business travel and conference registrations are being suspended, as well.

“Our cash flow crisis continues,” the administrators said in the message. “Immediate action is essential to protect our future.”

In January, Hennepin Healthcare leaders announced 100 job cuts and closures for certain services such as chiropractic and sleep care to address what they’ve described as “dire” financials. On Wednesday, Croston and Hough told employees they must trim $150 million in expenses by the third quarter.

“Volumes remain well below 2026 targets,” the co-administrators wrote in the message. “Immediate action is essential to protect our future.”

Hennepin Healthcare staff already are stretched thin after years of cuts, said Nathan Paulsen, a union steward with AFSCME 2474, which represents about 1,400 workers across 110 job titles, mostly in direct patient care. He said in an email that “further reductions to staffing or patient services will directly harm Minnesotans’ access to care.”