Fargo group wants say in hospital merger talks

FARGO, N.D. - A group of civic and business leaders is urging North Dakota's MeritCare Health System to give more details about a possible merger with South Dakota's Sanford Health.

Citizens for MeritCare, led by former Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness and former North Dakota first lady Jane Sinner, said it's worried about reports that a letter of intent between the two groups would be signed in the next two weeks.

"We feel that should not be executed before some other things are done," Furness said Friday.

Furness said MeritCare should open up about the merger because it's a not-for-profit company whose stakeholders include patients, employees and others throughout the region. The group wants an independent firm to assess the economic impact of a merger and for MeritCare to outline possible job losses. Also, the hospital needs to ensure local control, the group said.

MeritCare CEO Roger Gilbertson said it's not appropriate to talk about a potential merger until the letter of intent is signed.

"It is important to remember that the (letter of intent) is a non-binding agreement," Gilbertson said in a statement.

Furness said Citizens for MeritCare would like to arrange a meeting with MeritCare's board of trustees that would be open to the public.

When the talks between the two largest hospitals in the Dakotas were announced on June 17, they had been going on for about three months, which came as a surprise to Sinner, a former a MeritCare board member.

Sinner and three members of Citizens for MeritCare met briefly with the MeritCare board earlier this week.

"They did answer some of our questions. However, there was not time for us to really go into depth into what's happening," Sinner said.

Fargo-based MeritCare has 7,500 employees and more than 20 hospitals and clinics in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health has more than 10,000 employees and 23 hospitals, 12 nursing homes, 27 home health services and 19 pharmacies and serves the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, according to its Web site.

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