Allina News

[Pioneer Press, Nov. 22, 2011] Allina’s United Hospital in St. Paul is planning to spend $18.5 million to renovate operating rooms and expand the overall size of its surgery center. With the project, the total number of ORs in service at United will decrease slightly from 20 to 18. But each operating room will get [...]

[Pioneer Press, Nov. 17, 2011] The current president of Allina’s Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids has been named the new president of United Hospital in St. Paul, also an Allina Hospital. Tom O’Connor is scheduled to take the job at United Hospital effective Jan. 2. Located in the West Seventh neighborhood of St. Paul, United [...]

[Pioneer Press, August 18, 2011] Chris Evans wants to qualify for a health plan with a lower deductible next year. So the St. Paul man spent five minutes this week with a toothbrush-shaped swab tucked between his cheek and gums as part of a tobacco-use screening test at United Hospital. This year, Allina joins a [...]

[Pioneer Press, August 11, 2011]  A year ago, Joe Stone’s life as he knew it came crashing down on a Montana mountain. The impact left him with seven broken vertebrae, spinal cord damage and paralysis from the chest down. He said the severity of the accident didn’t hit him until therapy at the Sister Kenny [...]

[Pioneer Press, Aug. 7, 2011] For many years, Bill Garten lived what he calls “the casino life.” In the end, Garten lost his unhealthy wager, suffering two major heart attacks and related health problems that left him with few options for his angina chest pain. But now, he’s starting to feel like a winner, thanks [...]

[Pioneer Press, July 12, 2011] A new study shows that a Twin Cities medical program dubbed “Cool It” helped cardiac arrest patients have better outcomes by quickly putting them on ice. The findings, which were published Monday in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, should provide a model for how other communities can use [...]

[Pioneer Press, June 30, 2011] Abbott Northwestern Hospital wants smokers to kick the habit while encouraging a new one: annual CT scans. The Minneapolis hospital said Wednesday that it is offering low-dose CT lung screening to current or former smokers ages 50 to 74 who have a significant history of smoking. The announcement was timed [...]

[Pioneer Press, April 20, 2011] As a new generation of emergency rooms opens across the east metro, patients are finding amenities that might remind them more of hotels than hospitals. At United Hospital, there’s a fireplace in the lobby, art on the walls and a commitment to publish waiting times on a website — sort [...]

[Pioneer Press, April 6, 2011] Patients are living longer than ever with implantable defibrillators, so the Minnesota companies that make the devices should develop longer-lasting batteries. Those conclusions come from a study presented this week at a scientific meeting in New Orleans by Dr. Robert Hauser and colleagues at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott [...]

[Pioneer Press, Feb. 14, 2011] There are a lot of broken hearts in Minnesota. And doctors say the intriguing health problem usually doesn’t stem from a failed romance. “It can be from grief — from the death of a loved one. Or it can be from a tornado, a barn burning down or public speaking,” [...]

[Pioneer Press, Jan. 4, 2011] Implanted devices that shock failing hearts back into rhythm have saved tens of thousands of lives, doctors say, while also supporting a vibrant cluster of large medical-device companies in the Twin Cities. But a new study reports that about 20 percent of more than 110,000 patients who received these costly [...]

[Pioneer Press, Dec. 19,2010] When Bob Sherman puts two fingers to his wrist, the pulse he feels isn’t normal. Rather than sensing the singular beat he’s known for most of his life, Sherman now detects a longer surge of blood that occasionally feels like a double beat. He’s one of a growing number heart failure [...]