Online petition pushes for ‘another hospital’ in Muskegon

In what I believe is a first, Crain's Grand Rapids gives serious coverage to a local petition for another hospital to be started to improve service.

If only it were that easy! 🤣 

Anyone know how many permits (state, local, federal?) it takes to start a hospital? Maybe Crain's could do a follow-up....

https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/health-care/online-petition-pushes-for-another-hospital-in-muskegon/

Online petition pushes for ‘another hospital’ in Muskegon

August 3, 2023

The online petition for “another hospital in Muskegon” offers what Mike LaPenna describes as a “hopeless and ridiculous concept.” 

The longtime health care consultant and principal of the LaPenna Group Inc. in Grand Rapids says the notion has a “less than zero” chance of actually gaining life, given the regulatory hurdles and large amount of capital required. 

However, the online petition does provide a venue for people who have complaints to publicly vent their dissatisfaction and creates a “black eye” for Trinity Health Muskegon, LaPenna said. 

The anonymous online petition that began July 17 on change.org has since gained more than 1,350 signatures toward a goal of 1,500. That includes 1,000 signatures in one week. 

 

Many of the people who endorsed the online petition offered comments that included complaints about lengthy ER wait times at the lone hospital in Muskegon and a lack of choice and competition in a market that years ago had three hospitals prior to mergers that consolidated care. 

“It’s a core service issue,” LaPenna said. “Some of those comments were just egregious.” 

Many commenters on the online petition wrote how they waited several hours in the Trinity Health Muskegon ER to see a doctor, or for a loved one’s transfer to an inpatient bed once they were admitted to the hospital. Some said they left and went to another hospital for care. 

“We need more available options for health care and less monopoly in the health care system,” one commenter wrote after signing the online petition. 

“Muskegon needs options again!” wrote another. 

Trinity Health Muskegon attributed long ER wait times and other issues that commenters cited in the online petition to short staffing that many hospitals across Michigan and the U.S. have been experiencing. 

Part of Livonia-based Trinity Health, the Muskegon health system has been “aggressively recruiting nurses and clinicians to join our team.” 

“The doctors, nurses and all staff of Trinity Health Muskegon are working hard to ensure the best possible patient experience for everyone who comes to us for care. Like most health systems across the state and country, we are challenged with a high volume of patients requiring longer stays in the hospital, coupled with staff shortages that are impacting timely access,” Trinity Health Muskegon said in a statement to Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. “We continue to work through these realities to maintain safe and high-quality care and ensure the best possible patient experience for those who come to us for care.” 

The Michigan Health & Hospital Association has estimated that 1,700 fewer inpatients hospital beds go unused today because of staffing shortages. In launching an ad campaign in June to promote health care as a career option, the MHA also estimated that hospitals statewide are trying to fill 27,000 open positions, including 8,000 nursing jobs. 

The worker shortage forced Trinity Health Muskegon in February to close a 31-bed surgical floor at the hospital that was used for post-operative patient recovery. The closure was intended to maintain safe nurse-to-patient ratios as staff and patients move to two other medical-surgical floors. The surgical floor has yet to reopen. 

Trinity Health Muskegon’s hospital on Sherman Boulevard now stands as the only inpatient facility in Muskegon. The opening of a new $291 million patient tower in 2019 led to Trinity Health consolidating care at the Sherman Boulevard campus and closing the ER and inpatient beds at the former Hackley Hospital on Apple Avenue. 

The consolidation of inpatient care in Muskegon County to a single location began in the mid-1990s with the merger of the former Mercy Hospital and Muskegon General Hospital. The new health system created through that merger, Mercy General Health Partners, later combined with Hackley Hospital in 2008 to create Mercy Health Muskegon, which rebranded to Trinity Health Muskegon in 2022. 

Last year, Trinity Health Muskegon also acquired the former North Ottawa Community Health System in nearby Grand Haven, a facility now known as Trinity Health Grand Haven, where nearly 200 unionized staff represented by SEIU Healthcare Michigan are planning to stage a one-day strike Friday.

Mark Sanchez is a reporter covering finance and health care for Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. He previously worked for 11 years at MiBiz. Email Mark at mark.sanchez@crain.com.