Hospitals Seek OK for Gaylord Facility
Northern Michigan Patients Need Better Acute Care Access

Citing a problem with access to long-term acute hospital care across northern Michigan, several hospitals, including Mackinac Straits in St. Ignace, joined February 1 to seek state approval for a proposed 60-bed facility at Gaylord. If approved, the new facility would be built in 2008 and would be available to serve more than 750,000 residents in the northern part of the state, creating about 140 jobs.

A coalition of hospitals in Northern Michigan filed an application seeking approval for the $22 million, long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) in Gaylord. Cheboygan Memorial Hospital, Mackinac Straits Hospital and Health Center in St. Ignace, Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey, and War Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie developed the proposal.

The long-term facility would provide comprehensive medical services to patients who require intense hospital care for more than 25 days. It is an essential component of the continuum of care that is currently missing in northern Michigan, the hospitals reported. All of Michigan's other health service regions now benefit from such services except north central Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.

"A LTACH is needed for patients who no longer require the level of care of one of the community hospitals in our area, but are too sick to go to a skilled nursing facility or home care program," said Tom Mroczkowski, president and CEO of Northern Michigan Hospital. "Currently, Northern Michigan patients who require long-term acute care must travel downstate. Of the 20 long-term acute care hospitals, the closest is in either Bay City or Muskegon. Working cooperatively, our hospitals have come together to develop plans that would provide this muchneeded benefit to the more than 750,000 residents in our communities."

The administrators said the Gaylord location would maximize accessibility within the region and the proposed LTACH would create more than 140 jobs by the third year of operation.

The coalition has submitted an application to the Certificate of Need Commission in Lansing for review and approval, which could come by June. The coalition proposes to begin construction of the facility by mid-2008.