University of Michigan unveils plan for old Mott hospital

The university vacated the facility in December when it opened its new $754 million Mott hospital but was mum about concrete plans for repurposing the old facility.

In a memo to regents, U-M Health System CEO Ora Pescovitz and U-M CFO Timothy Slottow propose adding an eight-room operating suite, 95 general patient care beds and 25 intensive care beds used primarily for neuroscience programs to the old facility.

U-M also wants to repurpose an additional 104,000 square feet and add offices for staff serving in the new Mott facility.

Moving beds over to the old Mott facility will allow University Hospital to accept more patients and better accommodate growth, officials say. In June, U-M Hospitals and Health Centers projected significant growth this year. Officials foresaw a 2.3 percent increase in patient days and a 4 percent rise in outpatient activity from the 2010-11 fiscal year to 2011-12. The university also projected a rise in occupancy from 85.2 percent to 86.7 percent.

The health system is still determining how the renovation will impact parking.

The old Mott facility opened in 1969 with 200 beds and was renovated in the 1980s.