We noted Monday that plans for a giant addition at Lakeville Hospital in Stillwater have been shelved; now we hear that a proposal for a new hospital in Mankato has been dropped.

The Mankato Free Press reports that last year tensions between the existing Immanuel St. Joseph's Mayo Health hospital and the Mankato Clinic had led the clinic to propose building its own full-service hospital.

But the air is clearing between the two groups.

“We’re concentrating on developing a dialogue with the hospital, talking about some of the past frustrations, what led to the concept of a second hospital,” said Randy Farrow, CEO of the Mankato Clinic. “We’re pretty optimistic that if we work through those, we wouldn’t pursue a second hospital.”

One area of cooperation might be having physicians from both institutions covering for each other to be on call, they said.