Metro was bursting at its seems. The land footprint that Metro Hospital had was tiny by hospital standards. It had nowhere to expand (surrounded completely by residential) and add services, like more operating suites, procedure rooms, more beds, nicer OB dept, rads, cardio, the list goes on and on. Definitely couldn't have been done on the current site. And to top it of, its gonna be one kick-a hospital!
Also, hospitals need to be where the people are to provide the best care. If you are in Easttown, and have a heart attack, will you go to St Mary's, Blodgett, Butterworth, or Metro? All are extremely close. But what about the people in the southern suburbs? They've got to truck into downtown for services. Really, GR probably needs to decentralize the hospitals even more. What about the northern suburbs? I don't know enough about the pop. density of the area to know for sure.
Anyway, MetroHealth Hospital is going to rock! There's going to be an employee hard-hat walk through today, anybody have a report or picts? I can't wait to see the inside!