Cardiovascular, Continuing Care

New Corewell Health Medical Intensive Care Unit to Open

Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center eighth floor features 24 single-occupancy rooms

March 7, 2023

Grand Rapids, Mich., March 7, 2023 – After 15 months of work, the transformation of the eighth floor of the Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center is complete. The new Intensive Care Unit at Corewell Health features 24 single-occupancy rooms, expanding access to high-acuity care.

The new unit will begin admitting patients on March 15 and will treat a range of medical conditions including acute respiratory failure, post cardiac arrest, complications from bone marrow transplantation, diabetic ketoacidosis and other conditions.

“This project fills a great need in the community,” said Chad Tuttle, senior vice president, hospital operations and post-acute care at Corewell Health. “It was approved before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the demand for critical care beds was certainly exacerbated throughout the pandemic. We currently treat more than 2,000 ICU cases per year at the Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center with an average length of stay of 4.5 days.”

Currently, the Meijer Heart Center maintains 72 critical care beds that are often full. The new space expands capacity to 96 beds and aims to centralize all medical critical care patients to a single unit.

The new Intensive Care Unit, which was built at a cost of $17.5 million, features 24 single-occupancy rooms, expanding access to high-acuity care. The design and facilities teams worked closely with physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and care teams to create an efficient, spacious and modern environment. The space, formerly offices and meeting rooms, includes the latest in medical technology, a central medication storage room and smaller supply spaces throughout the unit to provide ready access to items supporting efficient patient care. A large sky light atrium in the middle of the unit provides access to daylight for all team members, visitors and mobile patients.

Tuttle said the next step in meeting critical care needs will be to expand the Meijer Heart Center cardiothoracic critical care unit on the fifth floor from 22 beds to 36 beds, work that will begin later this spring.

“The need has grown in recent years with the arrival and growth of programs including heart and lung transplantation, left ventricular assist device implantation, increasing valve and coronary bypass grafting volumes, and new thoracic procedures,” Tuttle said.

About Corewell Health™

People are at the heart of everything we do, and the inspiration for our legacy of outstanding outcomes, innovation, strong community partnerships, philanthropy and transparency. Corewell Health is a not-for-profit health system that provides health care and coverage with an exceptional team of 60,000+ dedicated people—including more than 11,500 physicians and advanced practice providers and more than 15,000 nurses providing care and services in 22 hospitals, 300+ outpatient locations and several post-acute facilities—and Priority Health, a provider-sponsored health plan serving more than 1.2 million members. Through experience and collaboration, we are reimagining a better, more equitable model of health and wellness. For more information, visit corewellhealth.org

 

Contact:
Tim Hawkins
Media Relations
Office: 616.486.6091
Mobile: 616.443.0361
Email: timothy.hawkins@corewellhealth.org