University of Michigan Health will spend $143 million to build a mental health hospital with the Lansing area’s first pediatric psychiatric beds and add a new outpatient surgery center.
The two projects will enhance UM Health’s position in the Lansing health care market, where the health system acquired Sparrow Health nearly three years ago.
“These investments would continue our commitment to improving access to care across the state, particularly for those who are most vulnerable,” said David Miller, the university’s executive vice president of medical affairs and CEO of Michigan Medicine, UM’s academic medical center. “Both facilities would improve access for patients, enhance the experience for our patients and our team members, and provide more options for specialized care in the local Lansing area.”
Construction on both projects will begin this summer with expected openings in 2028, Miller said.
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The university’s board of regents on Thursday afternoon approved issuing bids for the 64-bed, $83 million behavioral health hospital to replace an existing facility at UM Health-Sparrow’s 100-year-old St. Lawrence campus.
The hospital would serve adults, including older patients, and offer 16 beds for children and adolescents, a first for the Lansing area, Miller said.
“Right now, most pediatric patients are transferred over an hour away from Lansing,” said Dr. Victor Hong, a clinical associate professor in psychiatry for Michigan Medicine. “This will really enhance care in the region for these vulnerable patients. Sending people out this far from their homes caused a lot of challenges, not least of which is lack of ability for families to visit while they’re in the hospital.”
UM Health Sparrow will build the behavioral health hospital in what the health system called a “park-like setting” with “a contemporary, holistic and healing environment” on a site behind the Lansing hospital, near Pennsylvania Avenue and Jerome Street.
“Our communities deserve the level of care that is associated with UM Health, and both of these projects address unmet needs, including the scarcity of behavioral health services in the region,” said Margaret Dimond, regional president for UM Health.
Regents also approved seeking construction bids for the outpatient surgical center, which would have four operating rooms and space to expand with two additional ORs based on surgical volumes.
The new surgery center, proposed for a site west of the hospital near Michigan and Pennsylvania avenues, would partly replace surgical capacity at UM Health Sparrow’s St. Lawrence campus, where 22 operating rooms are “near capacity” for outpatient and inpatient cases, Miller said.
“Due to our capacity constraints, surgeons have limited block time available at the main hospital,” Miller and CFO Robert Hewlett III wrote in a memo to the board of regents for Thursday’s meeting.
The new outpatient center would allow UM Health Sparrow to move lower acuity surgical cases and position the hospital for future growth, according to Miller and Hewlett.
“We are grateful for the regents’ approval,” Dimond said. “Our communities deserve the level of care that is associated with UM Health, and both of these projects address unmet needs, including the scarcity of behavioral health services in the region.”
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