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Trades' operations make more room for surgery

Date Posted: October 14 2005

ANN ARBOR - A growing need for outpatient surgical and other medical care has resulted in the construction of the East Ann Arbor Ambulatory Surgery and Medical Procedures Center.

The 46,000 square foot facility is a joint effort of the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers (UMH) and U-M Medical School to ease increasing outpatient surgery and medical procedure capacity constraints at the U-M.

The $30 million facility will include six outpatient operating rooms, four medical procedure rooms and related support areas. Turner Construction is managing the project, which will have external and internal pedestrian links to provide access to the East Ann Arbor Health Center, and create additional parking. Completion is expected in December.

"With our remarkable growth in clinical, especially surgical, activity on the main medical campus it has become very important for us to find alternative methods to continue to meet our patients' and the community's health care needs," said Robert P. Kelch, M.D., U-M Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and U-M Health System CEO. "I am very pleased that the East Ann Arbor Surgery and Medical Procedures Center project will allow us to do that by extending our ability to provide our adult and pediatric patients with greater and more convenient access to medical care."

By building the new center, UMH and the U-M Medical School hope to free up more operating room time at UMH and Mott Hospital for patients that require the most resource-intensive surgical intervention such as transplantation, joint replacement, cardiovascular surgery and major cancer surgeries.

From 2001 to 2003, outpatient surgical activity increased by 12.5 percent at University Hospital and 10.5 percent at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.

The new center has been designed to meet demand for more than 7,000 surgical cases and an estimated 2,000 medical procedures each year. (Information from U-M).

CONNECTING four-inch conduit at the East Ann Arbor Ambulatory Surgery and Medical Procedures Center is Chad Adee of IBEW Local 252 and Huron Valley Electric.
Lori Joseph of UA Local 190 and Western Mechanical installs a hanger for medical gas lines.
THE ANN ARBOR AREA is booming because of developments like the $30 million Ambulatory Surgery and Medical Procedures Center. The Caterpillar bulldozer at right is operated by Darren Mills of Operating Engineers Local 324 and Site Development.