Fairview rescues struggling HealthEast in merger

Two Twin Cities health systems are merging. Fairview and HealthEast announced Wednesday that they will combine. Together, the two health systems would have a broad presence in the Twin Cities metro area and could funnel more patients to the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Fairview is much larger than HealthEast, with seven hospitals and 42 primary care clinics. HealthEast has only one-third as many clinics and four hospitals.