Baraga County Memorial Hospital (BCMH) is a critical access hospital with a long-term care unit, located in L'Anse, Michigan. The hospital has 15 acute care beds, 9 swingbeds, and 59 skilled nursing beds.

During the past several years, BCMH has made major investments to renovate and improve their facility and expand their services.

Challenges

Plante Moran CRESA (PMC) was engaged by BCMH to determine the feasibility of renovating or building a new hospital. To begin the project PMC conducted a number of studies including:

• Market demand analysis to review current market demographics and usage needs
• Validation study to review the scope of the project against benchmark data
• Reimbursement analysis to determine revenue forecasting needed for public financing
• Program strategy evaluation of financial assessments, operating costs, site due diligence, and location analysis
• Project cost estimation, a thorough review of all financial implications, project budget, schedule, cash flow, financing costs, insurance, medical equipment costs and furniture

Solutions

These studies were critical in working with the hospital to determine if they should renovate the current facility, build a new hospital on site, or build at a completely new location.  After a review of the feasibility of BCMH’s options they decided to build a new 71,000-square-foot facility on a new site and expand the current skilled nursing facility by adding  20 beds.

Plante Moran CRESA worked with BCMH to select a new site and negotiate a purchase agreement. PMC managed the RFQ/RFP process for the architect, construction company, and medical equipment as well as filing for the certificate of need with the state. Plante & Moran is also managing the HUD 242 financing approval process. PMC is acting as owner’s representative to BMCH during the construction to make sure the project stays on schedule and on budget.