$35 Million Expansion at Borgess Medical Center Underway

By Rachel Leber

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo is using a $35 million dollar expansion to add another floor to the Stryker Center, which will add a second floor and 32,000 square feet to the surgical suites at the facility.

The expansion will allow for ten new large, 360-square-foot operating rooms, creating more space for operations as well as current and future technologies. A bridge will connect the new surgical floor to patient units as well as the addition of and two new elevators.

In addition, space inside the Borgess Birthing Center — located in the hospital’s North Tower — will be renovated and retrofitted, adding two new operating rooms to the birthing center floor.

The ability to expand the hospital vertically was no accident — it was intentionally designed this way before the building first opened in 2005, with 133,000 square feet of space for laboratory and diagnostic testing as well as outpatient services and procedures.

Borgess Medical Center Sees Growing Cardio Services

Surgical cases have been increasing in cardiovascular services, orthopedic procedures, vascular work and bariatric surgeries at Borgess in more recent years, according to Robert Hill, M.D. and chief medical officer at Borgess in a recent interview with M Live. The expansion will provide much needed space for physicians and will provide greater convenience, privacy and comfort for patients, according to Hill.

While some pre-construction and interior work has already begun this month, true construction is expected to start in July 2018, and the project is expected to be complete by 2020, according to Becker’s Spine Review.

While construction is underway, some hospital services will be relocated, but patients should not experience any disruption in care during construction, according to the hospital. Once construction is complete, the process to access patient services — which will include registration, pre-op testing, procedures and surgery — will take place in the Stryker Center lobby.