DEVILS LAKE, N.D. — Altru Health System’s acquisition of CHI St. Alexius Health Devils Lake is tentatively scheduled for the end of March, said Altru CEO Todd Forkel.
The business side of the purchase agreement has been agreed to by both Altru and CommonSpirit Health, the owner of the Devils Lake hospital. As CommonSpirit is faith-based, its final step before finalizing the transaction is for the hospital to be taken off the Catholic registry by an office in the Vatican, to Forkel’s understanding.
“We anticipate receiving word of that approval any day now,” he said.
Altru and CommonSpirit have been working out the acquisition since it
was announced
in June 2024. Altru carried out a months-long period of due diligence, collaborating with CommonSpirit to make the change smooth. Altru put its electronic medical record in place and is training staff and providers on how to use its technology. The hospital will be integrated with the nearby Altru clinic in Devils Lake, so information will all be in the same spot for patients, as well as employees.
Forkel said he couldn’t speak to the price of the hospital, but that it was determined through a market evaluation process and Altru will use its cash reserve in the transaction.
Devils Lake Mayor Jim Moe said Altru has visited the city and has met with a potential CEO. Moe said a local resident will be put on the hospital’s board of directors, and the CEO will be on some committees in the city. When the transaction has gone through, Devils Lake is planning to hold an event in celebration.
“We’ll have an open house and a big celebration of all the hard work of all the entities involved to make this successful,” he said.
The hard work Moe referenced is a yearslong conversation about health care in Devils Lake, which gained traction in 2022 and progressed to public meetings attended by community members, health care leaders and U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
In January 2022, then-Devils Lake Mayor Dick Johnson wrote a
newspaper op-ed
demanding better health care options for the community and the region.
In October 2022, the city of Devils Lake, the Spirit Lake Tribe, Altru and Essentia Health signed a
letter of intent
to work together to create a new medical campus in Devils Lake. This was followed by several community discussions, such as an August 2023
roundtable with Hoeven
, where he pressed for progress and expressed frustration with what he said was a lack of conversations with CommonSpirit. In October, Tim Bricker, president of CommonSpirit’s Central Region,
met with Hoeven and local leaders
, which led to a commitment from the health system to make improvements at the hospital. Some of those
improvements
include emergency room upgrades, which Forkel said are close to being complete.
When the transaction goes through and ER renovations are finished, Forkel said Altru is planning to work on a master campus plan for its entire footprint, starting some time in the summer. For Devils Lake, Altru will explore plans for facilities and technology that need updating.
With a
newly constructed hospital
in Grand Forks, a soon-to-be acquired hospital in Devils Lake and plans to create the master campus plan, this year is going to be big for the health system, Forkel said. In regard to Devils Lake, he voiced thanks to Hoeven for his role in conversations about the hospital.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t also thank Sen. Hoeven for his influence and desire to help create something new in the Devils Lake market related to health care,” he said.
Otto is the region reporter for the Obituary.