Michigan Medicine will build a new adult hospital that will increase patient access and transform medical and surgical care at the academic medical center of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

The new 12-story hospital will house 264 private rooms capable of converting to intensive care, a state-of-the-art neurological and neurosurgical center, high-level specialty care services for cardiovascular and thoracic patients, along with advanced imaging. Locating these services together will enable health-care providers to quickly respond to complex cases and deliver state-of-the-art treatments.

The Board of Regents voted Sept. 19 to approve the five-year project, with a projected cost of $920 million. This vote follows two previous Board of Regents decisions in 2018 to approve planning expenditures related to the project.

The new 690,000-square-foot hospital will provide more access to care for adult patients at Michigan Medicine, where current hospital facilities often operate at more than 90 percent capacity.

“We are proud to be at the forefront of innovation with a new hospital that will support the extraordinary work of our faculty, nurses and other providers and our research community,” said Marschall Runge, executive vice president of medical affairs, CEO of Michigan Medicine and dean of the Medical School. “It’s an investment in Michigan Medicine’s mission of advancing health to serve Michigan and the world.”

President Mark Schlissel said, “The addition is crucial for our state, our university, and the millions of people who rely on us for quality advanced health care.”

In keeping with the university’s commitment to prioritize sustainability and reduce its carbon footprint, Michigan Medicine is working with its team of architects and engineers to achieve LEED Gold status for the project. LEED provides a framework to create healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving “green” facilities.

When completed in fall 2024, the hospital is expected to exceed current energy efficiency standards by about 20 percent compared to the state of Michigan building code for energy performance.

Michigan Medicine brought together many people from across the Medical Campus and the university to participate in the extensive team planning process for the new hospital. Nurses, physicians, administrative leaders, faculty and staff, as well as patients and families, have been involved as the hospital was designed to ensure the new facility will meet many different needs.

The new hospital was designed with lean principles for efficiency of flow and responsiveness to user needs. It will include:

• Family spaces throughout and space for loved ones to visit in each patient room.
• Centralized collaboration spaces in each patient area to enhance continuity of care.
• Two floors with 20 operating rooms built with the latest technology, many larger than Michigan Medicine’s current ORs, and three interventional radiology suites.
• Patient rooms that allow for more complex care, including capability for all spaces to support intensive care.

“This hospital will not only help us meet our community’s future health care needs, it will be a greater resource for other hospitals across the state, and further support and enable U-M health-care providers to do their very best work,” said Regent Shauna Ryder Diggs, who is a physician.

“The new adult inpatient hospital will allow the relocation of 110 beds currently in semiprivate rooms at University Hospital to the new hospital. As a result, all Michigan Medicine inpatient beds will be single, private rooms,” said David Spahlinger, president of the U-M Health System, the clinical arm of Michigan Medicine.

“Private rooms are important for the quality of our patient and family member experience, and is a proven factor in reducing hospital-acquired infections,” Spahlinger said.

After construction of the new rooms and relocation of the existing beds, the project will add a total of 154 new beds to the Medical Campus.

The building will be constructed adjacent to the Samuel and Jean Frankel Cardiovascular Center, with plans for bridge and tunnel connections to existing inpatient care facilities.

An average of 370 on-site construction jobs is projected and the preliminary estimate of new full-time jobs once the hospital opens is 1,600.

Planning for incremental parking, transportation and roadway improvements is underway.

Funding for the project will be provided from Michigan Medicine resources, but Michigan Medicine also is launching a philanthropic campaign.

“We invite the community to join us in building the new hospital,” said Eric Barritt, associate vice president and chief development officer for Michigan Medicine.

“Contributions will fuel progress across the neurological and neurosurgical care, cardiovascular, thoracic and other critical areas of care, ensuring the greatest possible impact for patients and families as well as for medical research and education.”

Historically, donations to Michigan Medicine have played an essential role in the construction and programmatic buildout of many capital projects, including the A. Alfred Taubman Health Care Center, Rachel Upjohn Building, Samuel and Jean Frankel Cardiovascular Center, Kellogg Eye Center and Brehm Tower, and C.S. Mott Children’s and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospitals.