Spectrum First To Open Near M6

WYOMING — Spectrum Health is the first of Grand Rapids' three hospitals to open the doors of a new health care facility near M-6.

The Spectrum Health West Pavilion opens today at

6105 Wilson Ave. SW.

The 55,000-square-foot building will offer outpatient services, such as urgent care, a laboratory, physical therapy, occupational health and radiology. Grandville Family Practice and Grandville Internal Medicine also will move there.

"The Spectrum Health West Pavilion was designed to meet several outpatient needs," stated Senior Vice President Marc Chircop. "The facility consolidates numerous services and will enable patients to access health care close to home in a convenient location."

Construction was performed by The Christman Co. and the building was designed by Progressive AE.

Chircop said demand for Spectrum Health's services had outgrown the former strip mall it occupied on Canal Avenue SW. "We looked at that site and decided, because of growth in that part of the city, we needed to expand, but we were unable to expand on that site," Chircop said.

The Canal site was closed, as were several other stand-alone services in KentCounty's southwest quadrant, and combined at the new West Pavilion, he said.

The West Pavilion will bring additional services, such as CT scans, MRI and ultrasound, as well as expanded services, such as a Spectrum Urgent Care center twice the size of the old location. Chircop said the Urgent Care center alone has seen patient volumes increase by 5 percent to 6 percent annually in recent years, to about 29,000 per year.

"The reason for doubling the size is just the volume that continues to grow," he said.

Population growth in the area is drawing not just Spectrum Health, but also Saint Mary's Health Care and MetroHealthHospital. Saint Mary's plans to open a similar facility near M-6 on Byron Center Avenue in February, and Metro Health is building a new hospital — the Grand Rapids area's first suburban inpatient facility — also along Byron Center Avenue near M-6, planned for a September opening.

"For our business, accessibility for patients, convenience, plenty of parking — that's what the M-6 site offers," Chircop said. "The southwest part of the city, the population is just growing out there very rapidly. That makes it a desirable market for us as well as other health care providers. Competition is a good thing."