From the Associated Press — University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Hospital plans to build a behavioral health hospital on its campus in Lansing that will, for the first time, offer child and adolescent care.
The U-M Board of Regents voted Thursday to approve the project, along with a freestanding surgical center, which together will cost nearly $150 million.
They are among the first projects at Sparrow since U-M took over in 2023 and committed to invest $800 million.
“These investments would continue our commitment to improving access to care across the state, particularly for those who are most vulnerable,” David C. Miller, CEO of Michigan Medicine, said during the regents meeting.
The 64-bed, $83 million behavioral health hospital will offer psychiatric care serving geriatric and adult populations and also include programs for adolescents and an outpatient service known as partial hospitalization, which the Lansing-based hospital has identified as a need and currently doesn’t offer.
“For many years, decades really, there’s been a desert of care especially in terms of the inpatient setting for pediatric care,” Victor Hong, UM clinical associate professor of psychiatry, said in a video released after approval by the regents.
“This new hospital will enhance the care in the region, add 16 new beds for pediatric patients whereas before the closest inpatient bed for a child was about an hour away from Lansing.”
It will replace the hospital’s facility that is currently located on the St. Lawrence campus, with a building in a park-like setting behind the main hospital.
The $60 million freestanding surgical facility is meant to ease capacity of the main hospital’s 22 operating rooms, opening initially with four operating rooms and potentially expanding with two more.
“Our communities deserve the level of care that is associated with U-M Health, and both of these projects address unmet needs, including the scarcity of behavioral health services in the region,” Margaret Dimond, Regional President, U-M Health, said in a statement.
Groundbreaking for both facilities is expected this summer with anticipated opening in 2028, Miller said.
U-M Regent Sarah Hubbard read a letter during the meeting from Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tim Daman, who said the projects would have a “profound and positive impact on public health, workforce stability and regional economic growth in Michigan’s capital city.” Investments to UM-Health Sparrow have also been made for a new $32 million clinic in Grand Ledge that officials said is expected to open by the end of the year, and a $28 million ambulatory clinic center to the hospital in Ionia.
