McLaren Northern Michigan has unveiled a $17 million renovation and expansion that will nearly double the size of its emergency department at its Cheboygan campus.
State grants that are part of the recently approved state budget for 2025-26 totaling $13 million will fund the bulk of the project, according to David Jones, a spokesman for McLaren. Expected to break ground in 2026, the project will also be supported by local donors and private funding.
The project will feature a near total renovation of the current 5,000-square-foot emergency room and add nearly 5,000 square feet with a newly constructed addition. The project will increase the number of treatment spaces to 14 private-treatment rooms, including beds designated for the safe and thorough evaluation of behavioral-health patients, McLaren said.
“With this enhancement and our continuing development of the McLaren Northern Michigan Cheboygan Campus, we will be in the position to elevate our services and further meet the needs of this great and deserving community,” Gar Atchison, McLaren Northern Michigan president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are grateful for the tremendous amount of support this project has already garnered, and we are excited at the benefit it can bring to Cheboygan and the well-being of this community.”
Dennis Hesselink, chair of the McLaren Northern Michigan Board of Trustees, added in a statement that “This project marks a significant and meaningful leap forward for McLaren Northern Michigan Cheboygan Campus and for the community I proudly call my home.”
“These enhancements to expand access to potentially life-saving care will ensure that Cheboygan families will receive the timely care they deserve right here, close to their homes,” Hesselink said.
Cheboygan County officials also expressed excitement for the expansion.
“The county appreciates McLaren’s commitment to renovate and expand ER capabilities in Cheboygan County,” Cheboygan County Administrator Jeff Lawson said in an email. “Emergency room access is an essential foundation of health care for a community, providing access to life-saving care when time is most critical. Investment in health care is also a foundation of economic development in the county. A strong health-care infrastructure is a critical factor when choosing a place to live, visit and work and contributes significantly to the local economy by providing stable employment and driving spending on goods and services.”
Cheboygan County EMS Director Mike English added that “anything that we can do to that resource to have that emergency medicine right here in town is just awesome.”
English was asked if this project, when completed, might mean fewer patients being transferred to the Petoskey hospital.
“They still may not have the ability to keep (patients) overnight, so I don’t know how much it will effect the transfers, honestly. It will just boost their ability to absorb surges and help critical patients in their time of need that we might be trying to risk it if we go to Petoskey,” he said.
McLaren Northern Michigan is a Petoskey-based 202-bed regional hospital serving residents in 22 counties across the northern Lower Peninsula and the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula.
McLaren previously expanded the Cheboygan Campus to provide behavioral health services with the opening of the Justin A. Borra Behavioral Health Center, which includes the 18-bed Pulte Family Foundation Adult Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit providing intensive care for patients afflicted with many forms of behavioral health conditions. The hospital’s Cheboygan-based services also feature an outpatient surgery center, comprehensive imaging and lab services, and primary and specialty-care clinics.
— Contact Paul Welitzkin at pwelitzkin@gaylordheraldtimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: State grants to spur emergency department expansion at McLaren’s Cheboygan campus
Reporting by Paul Welitzkin, Cheboygan Daily Tribune / Cheboygan Daily Tribune
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