90 medical jobs come to Grand Rapids, Muskegon with new Great Lakes Specialty Hospital

A new "hospital within a hospital" development could bring some 90 healthcare jobs to Grand Rapids and Muskegon beginning this month.

Great Lakes Specialty Hospital, a hospital specifically for patients who need long-term acute care, is under construction on the fifth floor of Saint Mary's Health Care's main hospital (200 Jefferson Ave. SE, Grand Rapids).

The specialty hospital will move from its current location at the old Muskegon General Hospital and will bring a handful of employees with it to Grand Rapids, says CEO Brian Pangle. His plans are to transfer the remaining employees to the Great Lakes Specialty Hospital that's located inside Muskegon's Hackley Hospital and backfill the handful of vacant positions. That leaves the remaining 70-plus positions to be filled in Grand Rapids.

"When (the Grand Rapids location) is operating at capacity, it will employ about 90 people," Pangle says. "Registered nurses will be the largest hire, but we'll also need certified nurse aides, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and physical, occupational and speech therapists."
 
The specialty hospital treats patients who are in an in-between stage of recovery: they no longer need ICU acute care, but they're not ready to go home or to participate in rehabilitation therapies. They may have open wounds that need healing or have respiratory distress or post-surgical infections. By locating the specialty hospital inside the traditional hospital, doctors have access to pathology labs, operating rooms and MRI/imaging technologies already in place.

"We purchase lab services, dietary services, surgical services and other services from the traditional hospital, which allows their staff to stay fully employed," Pangle says.

Great Lakes Specialty Hospital will start with 20 private patient rooms in Grand Rapids and could open in March 2012.

For more information on the jobs available, click here.

Source: Brian Pangle, Great Lakes Specialty Hospital
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor