Park Nicollet Health Services is closing its Hopkins clinic, laying off another 240 employees and consolidating mental health services from five sites to two.

Including this latest round of layoffs, the St. Louis Park-based health system has let go more than 700 workers since December. In April, MinnPost reported that Park Nicollet’s cash reserves had fallen to the point that bondholders forced the system to bring in an independent consultant to review its finances and come up with action steps. Park Nicollet has said the cutbacks are the result of operating losses, a decline in the value of its investment portfolio and a rise in uncompensated care. 

Tuesday’s press release suggests that the financial outlook might be improving. Park Nicollet said it was announcing “the completion of its plan that responds to the economic downturn.”

“While improving profitability is a key goal of our plan, continuing to provide high quality care and service to our patients remains our first priority,” Park Nicollet CEO David Wessner said in the statement. “These changes do not compromise our mission. We have completed our plan and we’re confident that Park Nicollet will continue to be a local and national leader in providing high quality health care.”

Park Nicollet’s closure of the Hopkins clinic comes after several years of building new facilities, including the recently opened $29 million Melrose Institute for eating disorders.

The 29 employees at the Hopkins clinic will be transferred to other sites, including the St. Louis Park clinic, which is 3.5 miles away, and Minnetonka, six miles away, said Jeremiah Whitten, director of media relations for Park Nicollet.

Employees told MinnPost in April that they feared the Minneapolis clinic, which serves more Medicare and Medicaid patients than others in the system, might be closed to trim losses. Instead, the Hopkins clinic will close in the fall and mental health services in Minneapolis, Bloomington and Prairie Center will be moved to clinics in St. Louis Park and Eden Prairie.

Whitten could not say whether any mental health services employees would lose their jobs in the consolidation. “I can emphasize that when we consolidate to the main clinic campus in St. Louis Park, we’re enlarging the space and adding evening and Saturday hours,” he said Wednesday.

The 240 layoffs announced Tuesday are spread across the system and types of employees, he said.