What we know so far: McLaren's plans to close two south Lansing hospitals, open another
Sarah LehrLANSING – McLaren Greater Lansing plans to close two southside hospitals when it opens a $450 million facility by early 2022 near Michigan State University on Lansing's southeast side.
The fate of the two older facilities has yet to be announced, although McLaren executives say they are pursuing several avenues. Community members have a lot of questions about the future of the closed hospital sites. Here's what's known so far.
When will the hospitals close?
The existing facilities — the McLaren Greater Lansing hospital at 401 W. Greenlawn Ave. and the 2727 S. Pennsylvania Ave. McLaren Orthopedic Hospital — will continue to operate for nearly three more years until the new, consolidated campus opens to patients just east of U.S. 127.
"It's kind of a unique situation," McLaren Greater Lansing Chief Operating Officer Casey Kandow said, referencing the challenge of marketing facilities that cannot immediately be vacated. Nonetheless, he added, "We've been really encouraged by the response so far."
McLaren has hired a national advisory firm to assist in the search for a purchaser to repurpose the buildings, Kandow said. He declined to name the firm, but said McLaren is courting both public and private buyers.
Could buildings be used for health care?
Most private interest has come from health care and bioinformatics companies, Kandow said.
“I think it’s fair to say it is a health care campus, both of them,” Bob Trezise, president and CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, said of the older hospital properties.
McLaren's Pennsylvania Avenue orthopedic hospital spans 322,000 square feet.
The Greenlawn facility is more than twice that size at 712,000 square feet. Parts of that hospital, formerly known as the Ingham Regional Medical Center, were built in 1930. The first buildings at the Pennsylvania Avenue campus were constructed in 1959.
LEAP, a regional economic development agency funded by area businesses and local governments, has been meeting with McLaren executives every other week regarding hospital consolidation plans, Trezise said.
Trezise referenced "promising" leads, but declined to name the interested parties.
Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, who has met periodically with the health system's top brass regarding the project, suggested McLaren's campuses could house laboratories or mental health facilities.
McLaren tried to entice the state of Michigan into using either the Greenlawn or Pennsylvania Avenue property as a state-owned behavioral health facility.
The state, however, is not interested in purchasing either of the properties, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin said Friday. Sutfin did confirm that state officials toured McLaren's property after the health system extended several invitations.
Will the old hospitals be torn down?
Tearing down the hospitals would be a "worst-case scenario," Kandow said.
McLaren's priority will be finding a buyer to repurpose its hospital buildings, officials say. If that doesn't happen, local leaders say green space would be preferable to huge, vacant structure.
"Obviously, what the neighbors don't want is a blighted building," said 2nd Ward Council Member Jeremy Garza, who represents the area including the Greenlawn and Pennsylvania Avenue facilities. "That's when you see the activities like vandalism starting to happen."
The new, consolidated facility will still be in Garza's ward, but at the eastern edge of the territory he represents.
"They are pretty much in residential neighborhoods," Garza said of the Greenlawn and Pennsylvania Avenue hospitals. "We need something that fits in with the community."
South Lansing resident Jason Wilkes called the hospitals' pending closure a "major concern."
"Bottom line — it's a huge unknown right now," Wilkes said, although he added he's been impressed by McLaren's community outreach efforts.
Some residents are worried about traveling farther for health care, said Wilkes, who leads a neighborhood organization called Rejeuvenating South Lansing.
Schor countered, however, that the new hospital's proximity to U.S. 127, a major highway, will be more convenient for a greater number of people.
The new hospital will be about 4 miles, or a 12-minute drive, from McLaren's Greenlawn facility and close to 3.5 miles, or an eight-minute drive, from the McLaren Orthopedic Hospital on Pennsylvania Avenue.
What's planned for the new hospital?
The consolidation plans will lead to McLaren cutting 149 hospital beds in Lansing once the new, 240-bed facility opens.
McLaren is currently licensed to have 389 beds between its two existing Lansing facilities, but the hospital typically uses only a fraction of those beds on a given day, Kandow said. McLaren sees about 160 hospital patients in Lansing an average day, according to the hospital's administration.
Changing health care trends have led hospitals nationwide to cut beds, Kandow said.
Industry analysts have pointed to factors such as a focus on outpatient care and on prevention to keep people out of hospitals in the first place.
From 1975 to 2015, the number of hospital beds nationwide decreased by nearly 39%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over that 40-year time period, the nation's total number of hospitals shrunk by more than 22% as hospital chains closed and consolidated.
McLaren expects to add about 80 employees when its new campus opens, company representatives have said.
Crews began pouring concrete for the new facility's foundation this month after breaking ground in December 2018.
McLaren bought land for the new hospital from the MSU Foundation. The MSU Foundation is non-profit that works to commercialize the university's research.
More:
Putnam: Will Lansing neighborhoods thrive or wither when McLaren moves hospital?
New McLaren hospital is part of a boom in local health care investment
Contact Sarah Lehr at (517) 377-1056 or slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr.
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