Dive Brief:
- McLaren Greater Lansing, a subsidiary of Michigan-based McLaren Health Care, announced Monday that it plans to consolidate two of its facilities into one $450 million, nine-story hospital near Michigan State University (MSU), according to the Lansing State Journal.
- The 240-bed medical campus will also feature cancer and ambulatory care centers. McLaren said the collaboration with MSU on the new hospital and associated planned programs will help the university and the hospital recruit students and employees, respectively.
- Construction, which will be financed with bonds, is scheduled to begin in spring of 2018 and wrap up in 2021, creating 2,500 temporary jobs.
Dive Insight:
Despite the proliferation of outpatient centers and micro-hospitals, healthcare systems are once again focusing their resources on developing large hospitals, like the $1.1 billion Calgary Cancer Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The 2-million-square-foot, 160-bed project, according to CBC News, broke ground early last month and is the largest design-build, lump sum project in contractor PCL Construction Management's history.
University-related healthcare expansions are also on the rise. When RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers University announced in July that they would form New Jersey's largest academic healthcare system, Rutgers officials told Modern Healthcare that the scale created by joining forces would expand the consortium's opportunities. The University of Virginia, too, has a $376 million expansion underway.
According to a Health Facilities Management survey, construction of new children's hospitals is also trending up. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) just unveiled the master plan for a $1.3 billion pediatric campus in an Atlanta suburb. The two-tower, 446-bed hospital, will replace an existing downtown facility and anchor the campus. When complete, the medical complex will include administrative offices, 20 acres of green space and the Center for Advanced Pediatrics, which is already under construction. The massive project will also spur an estimated $40 million of associated infrastructure work, for which CHOA said it will pay.
