CHEBOYGAN, MI — A $17 million expansion will nearly double the emergency room square footage at McLaren Northern Michigan’s Cheboygan campus.
The Up North hospital will receive the bulk of the funding through a $13 million state grant recently approved in the 2025-26 state budget, according to Cheboygan Daily Tribune reporting.
The project will renovate the current 5,000 square-foot space and add nearly 5,000 more with a newly constructed addition.
The project is expected to break ground in 2026.
The renovation and expansion will add 14 more private treatment rooms.
The new ER suites in Cheboygan will be designated for the safe and thorough evaluation of behavioral-health patients.
This expansion of behavioral-health services comes shortly after McLaren opened the 18-bed Pulte Family Foundation Adult Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit on the Cheboygan campus in 2023.
This unit provides inpatient care for patients with the depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
The northern Michigan region’s lack of resources for behavioral-health care has put a strain on other services.
In 2020, McLaren Northern Michigan’s two Emergency Departments saw 892 behavioral health patients.
The hospital system said patients remain in emergency departments while waiting for space to open up at the 35 licensed adult beds in the 22 counties that McLaren Northern Michigan serves.
McLaren Northern Michigan is part of McLaren Health Care which serves the lower northern Michigan counties and stretches into the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula. The regional hospital is based in Petoskey with 202 beds.
More on the state budget: What’s in Michigan’s proposed $51B general government budget?
More health news Up North: Nurses say cuts to Northern Michigan hospital staff will hurt patient care
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