St. Luke’s to Affiliate with Aspirus Health

DULUTH, MINN. — A major announcement came today from St. Luke’s. The Duluth-based healthcare system has signed a letter of intent to affiliate with Aspirus Health of Wisconsin.

The combined organization of St. Luke’s and Aspirus will serve residents of northeastern Minnesota, northern and central Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Headquarters for the health care system will be in Wausau, Wisconsin where Aspirus is headquartered.  A corporate office will also be located in Duluth.

Combined, there will be 1,300 physicians and nearly 14,000 team members with 130 outpatient locations and 19 hospitals.

In a prepared statement, St. Luke’s Co-president Eric Lohn said, “Evolving community needs require us to find new and innovative approaches to delivering care. The strength of Aspirus Health will enable St. Luke’s to accelerate investment in our communities and expand our impact faster than we can on our own.”

Duluth Chamber of Commerce president Matt Baumgartner says the Chamber sees the new affiliation as a positive move for the city. Baumgartner said, “To continue to see investments being made from organizations both here locally and then others who are affiliating here locally is really important. It strengthens us as a provider of health care and the sheer number of jobs that are provided which now will get close to 30,000 health care jobs between St. Luke’s and Aspirus and many, many hospitals, so we’re really excited about it.”

The two companies hope to complete the affiliation process in early 2024.