A small Michigan hospital will add seven rooms to its emergency department and will make improvements to its ambulatory care department with donated funds.
Otsego Memorial Hospital's capital campaign for a $13.1 million expansion and renovation has received its largest donation from a surprising place—an oil company.
Johnson Oil Company and the Johnson family donated $750,000 toward the effort, and as a result the Gaylord, MI hospital's new ED will be named The Dale E. Johnson Emergency Department in honor of the family's patriarch.
The expansion will add seven rooms to the ED, for a total of 19, and will add a new and larger operating room. Improvements will also be made to hospital's ambulatory care department to improve privacy, patient security, and comfort, officials said.
"We see a lot of varied needs here at this hospital. We're a small, rural hospital, yet we see a lot of high traumas. We see a lot of surgical patients," Christie Perdue, Otsego Memorial Hospital's foundation and marketing director, told the Gaylord Herald Times.
"We have a lot of people that can't travel very far, and so Otsego Memorial Hospital is their destination for care. We are honored to serve them, and we want to do that in a larger space, make it more accessible and enhance the privacy and security they feel when they are here."
During a community meeting about the expansion capital campaign last week, Otsego CEO Tom Lemon reported that ED visits have risen 6% annually in the last four years, and outpatient surgeries have experienced 12% annual growth.
So far, the hospital has raised $3 million that it will put toward the campaign's $4 million goal. Administrators said they hope to raise the remaining $1 million by next summer so they can break ground on the expansion.
Otsego marketers have been sharing news coverage on the capital campaign via its Facebook page. They also appeared to tease the expansion announcement by posting a photo of the barn where the community meeting was held.
"Sneak preview of some exciting OMH news…" they wrote. "Stay tuned!"