LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — It’s been more than eight years since the old Lansing Eastern High School was sold. Sparrow HospitalHealth department officials have outlined their plans for the site.
The University of Michigan Health Center, which merges with Sparrow University in 2023, now plans to ask the state of Michigan for approval to set up 120 beds for mental health services at the site of a former 1928 high school on North Pennsylvania Avenue, officials announced Friday.
A spokesperson for the health system said the majority of behavioral health patients in the emergency department are there because they are waiting for long-term hospital beds to open up.
“UM Health’s plan is to utilize the former Lansing Eastern High School site adjacent to the UM Health Sparrow Lansing campus to help address the behavioral health crisis,” they said in a news release.
UM Health officials said the old high school building “has been closed for many years and the interior is dilapidated, making it unsafe and too expensive to locate services there.”
Officials did not say whether they planned to demolish the old high school building to make way for the new facility, but said “UM Health will continue to work closely with the school’s alumni and community members in the coming months before presenting a final proposal to the Board of Trustees.”
The Lansing School District signed a purchase agreement with Sparrow in January 2016. Eastern High School students Five years ago today, I attended school in the old building for the last time: June 7, 2019.
U-M Health officials said the former high school’s location is key to the plan. “Proximity to the hospital is critical, as the complex needs of behavioral health patients are best served by being close to the U-M Health Sparrow Lansing Emergency Department,” the official said.
UM Heath said it will eventually submit a proposal to the UM Board of Trustees for approval of plans for the former high school site.
