The University of Michigan Health System is considering expanding its West Ann Arbor Health Center at 4900 Jackson Road in Scio Township as part of an effort to ease congestion at its main hospital campus.
The health system has put a request for proposals to evaluate if expanding the center is a feasible business move, said Jeanne Rizzo, executive director of Ambulatory Care Services for UMHS.
The West Ann Arbor Health Center comprises about 6,131 square feet in a facility about four miles west of downtown Ann Arbor.
The center has 10 doctors on staff and provides general medicine services for adults and children, as well as OB/GYN services.
"We're in the process of going through... an RFP process to look at whether we would expand our West Ann Arbor site; but we're in the very beginning stages of that RFP process," Rizzo said.
Part of the health system's strategies and goals are to bring primary and secondary care closer to the homes of the patients they serve, Rizzo said — thus helping to alleviate some of the congestion problems at U-M's main hospital campus in Ann Arbor on East Medical Center Drive.
One such development the health system hopes will accomplish those goals is the Northville Health Center. In a partnership with a private developer, UMHS will lease a 100,000-square-foot two-story building that will be constructed just for them at the corner of Seven Mile and Haggerty roads in Northville Township.
The facility will be the first of its kind for UMHS in its offering of primary care as well as specialists in a number of disciplines. UMHS projects it will be staffed by 60 doctors.
The success of the Northville Health Center will be used to evaluate whether UMHS decides to expand the West Ann Arbor Health Center, among other projects, Rizzo said.
"There are other places that we are hopeful that we will be able to do some expanded services in the future," Rizzo said.
Amy Biolchini covers Washtenaw County, health and environmental issues for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at (734) 623-2552, amybiolchini@annarbor.com or on Twitter.
