McLaren Port Huron Moves Forward with Construction Plans

PORT HURON, Mich. — McLaren Port Huron’s board of trustees recently approved $162 million for the expansion and renovation of the hospital’s campus in Port Huron, located about 60 miles northeast of Detroit.

McLaren Port Huron plans to renovate roughly 100,000 square feet of existing patient floors in the hospital, with a redesign of most inpatient services. An additional 200,000 square feet will also be added to the existing facility. Plans also call for a new four- or five-story patient tower, as well as a 35,000-square-foot Karmanos Cancer Institute.

Karmanos Cancer Institute is headquartered in Detroit, with an additional location in Farmington Hills, Mich. The addition of a new Karmanos Cancer Institute site in Port Huron will allow residents to stay close to home while receiving state-of-the-art cancer treatment such as the new Elekta Versa HD linear accelerator, a radiation therapy, along with infusion therapy, imaging technology and clinical trials.

The master facility plan was made possible through the May 2014 integration of the 186-bed Port Huron Hospital with Flint, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care Inc., making Port Huron McLaren’s 12th hospital in Michigan.

“This project will transform the face of health care in our community,” said Tom DeFauw, McLaren Port Huron president and CEO, in a statement. “Our plans represent the next step in providing our community with the very latest clinical services and technology while providing greater privacy and comfort for our patients and their families. These are changes that will allow the flexibility necessary to accommodate future health care trends well into the future.”

The new multistory patient tower will be built at the south end of the current McLaren Port Huron campus. It will feature 70 private rooms, a new emergency center, an expanded intensive care unit and an inpatient surgery/interventional suite with two cardiac catheterization labs, an electrophysiology lab and four new inpatient operating rooms that will adjoin the current operating rooms. Groundbreaking for the patient tower will begin in fall 2015, and occupancy is expected in spring 2017.

The hospital’s existing east tower will be redesigned to have only private rooms. Furthermore, the new Karmanos Cancer Institute will occupy the site of the current emergency center. Construction for the new cancer center will begin this summer. The facility is slated to open in the spring of 2016, with full occupancy by the end of 2017.

“There’s a significant demonstrated need for local, expanded services like cancer care so patients can receive the treatment they need close to home,” DeFauw added in a statement. “It’s estimated that about 60 percent of cancer patients in St. Clair County currently travel outside of the county to receive some of their care, while approximately 40 percent go elsewhere for radiation therapy.”

Finally, an upgraded, light-filled lobby, a renovated cafeteria and other amenities will provide an enhanced visitor experience for patients’ family and friends. All renovations are scheduled for completion by fall 2018.

“This expansion and renovation of our hospital campus, which often operates at near-capacity, is a reflection of our larger vision of how our campus should perform for the next 20 years,” DeFauw said in a statement. “This progressive approach coincides with our determination to remain a locally governed, not-for-profit organization, while preserving the community’s access to high-quality health care for generations to come.”