Allina to bring hospitals under one governing board

Allina Hospitals & Clinics, Minneapolis, said it will consolidate governance for its 15 hospitals into one 20-member board. Individual hospital boards will dissolve over the next few months, Allina officials said. Regional community boards will function only as advisory bodies. The new governance structure is part of the system's evolution to "one mission, one strategy, one focus" and a step in its transformation to a "more patient-centered healthcare system," Allina said in a news release. The new system board will include a physician practice council as a subcommittee. Dick Pettingill, the former Kaiser Permanente executive who became Allina's president and chief executive officer in late 2002, will sit on the board as an ex officio member. Allina has undergone significant transformation in recent years, most notably its 2001 split from the HMO Medica. -- by Cinda Becker