University of Michigan Health-Sparrow’s $150M Expansion Masks Deeper Healthcare Access Failures

As the University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Hospital embarks on a nearly $150 million expansion to build a behavioral health hospital and a freestanding surgical center in Lansing, it exposes a critical question: Are these investments enough to address the deep-seated failures in healthcare access across Michigan? Does Bigger Always Mean Better When It Comes to Mental Health Services? The planned 64-bed behavioral health hospital aims to serve geriatric, adult, and—for the first time—child and adolescent patients. While this addresses an undeniable void in psychiatric care, especially inpatient pediatric beds more than an hour away from Lansing today, one must ask...