MONROE, Mich. — ProMedica will not build a new hospital in Monroe, Mich., due to a variety of reasons and will instead renovate its existing campus, the healthcare company's spokesperson, Tausha Moore, confirmed to WTOL 11 Friday.
Moore provided a response attributed to ProMedica Monroe Regional Hospital President Darrin Arquette, saying the needs that would have been filled by the new hospital could instead be fulfilled with upgrades to the current campus on North Macomb Street.
According to the statement, community members said they wanted their hospital to stay in the city of Monroe and the project's top priority of new inpatient rooms can be accomplished by building a new replacement bed tower onto the existing campus.
The statement says financial challenges facing the entire healthcare industry encouraged ProMedica to revisit "large capital projects, such as a new hospital."
"Many other areas of [ProMedica Monroe Regional Hospital] are functioning very effectively and fine as is, or some need only light renovation."
Past renovations are evidence that "this strategy works," according to Arquette's statement.
He cites the addition of the Generations Tower to ProMedica Toledo Hospital's campus as an example of what to expect from the Monroe campus bed tower.
The Generations Tower, a $400 million project that resulted in 13 stories with 300 private patient rooms and and a nurse collaboration hub on each floor, was built in 2019.
The decision to forgo the new Monroe hospital comes as northwest Ohio's largest employer has struggled with an anxious financial state in the last few years coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company lost nearly $40 million in the second quarter of 2023. This was preceded by its first profitable quarter since 2020, which had boded well for a company that spent the last two years bleeding money.