University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Ionia will build a new ambulatory clinic center that connects to the hospital in a project estimated to cost $28 million and improve health care services for patients in the rural community.
The 31,000-square-foot center received approval Nov. 20 from the University of Michigan Board of Regents. Funding will be provided from U-M Health-Sparrow resources, according to a news release.
Design for the building, which is anticipated to be two stories, is to begin in January and is estimated to take nine months, Connie O’Malley, chief operating officer of the U-M Health Regional Network, told the Detroit Free Press.
After that, O’Malley said, construction will start, with the center’s anticipated opening in the spring or summer of 2028.
The center will house services including primary care, oncology, orthopedics, cardiology, diagnostics and imaging, including MRI. The infusion center also will be expanded, she said.
O’Malley said the center’s entire footprint is expected to be 31,000 square feet. She said additional staff will be employed for the services being offered.
O’Malley said the center will be south of the hospital on part of 42 acres the health system owns. The center will be connected to the hospital, which is a critical access hospital that was built in 2015, is LEED certified (meaning it meets specific environmental requirements), has 22 beds and board-certified emergency room physicians.
“In the last decade, our Ionia hospital has experienced tremendous patient activity growth in both inpatient and outpatient services. We need this space for both specialty and primary care physicians as well as to support further growth,” Margaret Dimond, president of the U-M Health Regional Network, said in the release.
“We are committed to meeting the need of communities like those in and around Ionia County, and other rural areas of Michigan, bringing the right care closer to home for more patients. This is a huge need in the Ionia community, and we are excited to grow to meet the demand.”
O’Malley didn’t have an exact number of patients the new center would serve, saying it would depend on the different types of services. However, she said, it will bring services and care closer to patients, some of whom currently drive 40 minutes to an hour for the services they need.
She said the new center will be “convenient and really able to service the patient fully, unless they have a a tertiary care need” and have to travel to Grand Rapids or Lansing.
“I think our goal is to create a statewide network of care for our patients,” O’Malley said. “This is the middle of mid-Michigan and we see a need for continued access for our patients and this will give them that access.”
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @challreporter.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press.
Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: U-M Health-Sparrow Ionia to build $28M center, improve health services
Reporting by Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
