McLaren Improved Health Care Access With New Hospital
This article appeared in McLaren Health’s Blog. Read more here.
As the opening of the new McLaren Greater Lansing hospital and health care campus nears, talk about access to the campus continues.
“Access to the new hospital was one of the major considerations when we were looking for a location to build our replacement hospital,” said Kirk Ray, President and CEO of McLaren Greater Lansing. “If you take a trip on the interstates surrounding the Lansing-area, you are at any given time within 15 minutes of our new campus. Convenient access off the highway is one of the reasons the University Health Park was selected.”
The University Health Park (formally Michigan State University Corporate Research Park) was originally farmland when President John Hannah bought it in the 1960’s. In the 1980’s MSU deeded part of the land to the MSU Foundation to build a research park. “The park started strong with new infrastructure and three new buildings constructed between 1988 and 1996. Not a lot of development occurred after that until McLaren approached us with this project,” said David Washburn, Executive Director, Michigan State University Foundation. “The new McLaren Health Care Campus is just the start of expansion and development at the University Health Park. There are more opportunities for investors, and we are looking forward to continued growth at the University Health Park.”
Accessibility will also be easier for commuters who use public transportation. CATA has begun a new bus route, the Capital City Crosstown, which takes people from the city’s east side to the west side using Mt. Hope Avenue. One of the planned stops on the bus route is McLaren’s new health care campus.
“Because many of our patients come from our local neighborhoods, planning for public transportation accommodations was always on the forefront of our planning and not an afterthought,” said John Patterson, VP of operations at McLaren Greater Lansing.
The new bus line is just a part of McLaren’s plan to improve access to the new health care campus. Just recently, Forest and Collins Roads both received infrastructure updates, including a traffic circle to address traffic flow in the area.
“We are very happy about the improvements that are being made to the roads as well as the addition of the CATA line,” said Patterson. “It is very important for us to be able to serve the Lansing community. That has always been important to us.”
Another change the hospital is making will be to the road names within the health care campus.
“Wayfinding at our new hospital was a top priority for everyone who was a part of the project. We wanted it to be easy for our patients to find where they needed to go. The renaming of our internal roads is one piece of that,” Patterson said. “I want to thank the Mayor’s Office, CATA, and the City of Lansing for their responsiveness to our community and ensuring ease of access to health care to area residents.”
The new hospital will also offer plenty of parking with surface lots as well as a parking ramp that offers 14 electric vehicle charging stations. The parking ramp includes car count technology that will show you how many parking spaces are open on each level. This will help patients and visitors get to their appointments on time and stress-free. The hospital will also be offering valet service.
McLaren looks forward to welcoming its first patients in spring 2022.
back to blog