Executives have been working with regional and national teams in search of a buyer for the two facilities.
McLaren Health Care plans to close two hospitals in Lansing, Michigan, when it opens a new $450 million hospital near Michigan State University by early 2022.
Plans to consolidate operations into the new facility were announced more than 16 months ago. What remains unclear is what will happen to the two vacated hospitals, as Lansing State Journal's Sarah Lehr reported Monday.
Casey Kandow, chief operating officer for McLaren Greater Lansing, reportedly said demolishing the two hospitals would be a "worst case scenario." Kandow said a national advisory firm has been hired to find someone to buy and reporpose the buildings, which together offer total floor space of more than 1 million square feet, as Lehr reported. Kandow declined to name the national firm.
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McLaren executives have also been meeting biweekly with a regional economic development agency about the consolidation plans, Lehr reported.
Currently, McLaren is licensed for 389 hospital beds between its two Lansing hospitals. The new consolidated hospital will have just 240 beds, according McLaren's 2017 announcement. Part of the strategy behind the new hospital is to deepen McLaren's ties to MSU through not only clinical services but research and education as well.
Steven Porter is an associate content manager and Strategy editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Building the new hospital adjacent to the university is part of an effort to deepen cooperative ties with the campus.
The health system announced its consolidation plans in late 2017 but still hasn't settled on a plan for the two hospitals it will vacate.