Central Michigan University is providing details of its College of Medicine role in Saginaw’s major economic development project of the 2020s decade, the Medical Diamond along the South Washington Avenue corridor between downtown and City Hall.
This comes on the eve of a City Council long-range planning session, set for 9 a.m. Friday at City Hall. One agenda item is ARPA, the federal American Rescue Plan Act, adopted to address local pandemic hardship. Of a total $52 million, the council has assigned $5 million to the Medical Diamond, slated for completion by 2029, and also will discuss more than $1 million that remains not allocated for smaller proposals.
Taxpayer sums raised through ARPA so far include $5 million from the city toward a section for behavioral and mental health, along with another $5 million from the County Board and $30.3 from the state for overall infrastructure. The federal government is adding another $3.3 million, with more anticipated.
Many health center details remain uncertain at this early stage, but after approval from CMU Board of Trustees six weeks ago, factual info is emerging. In that spirit, we asked the school’s public relations office for an outline.
Ari Harris, director of university communications, begins by offering correction notes on our initial Dec. 19 report, during which Saginaw Future’s Tom Miller informed council members, “We will need about $100 million for the physical buildings themselves, and then the partners at CMU are going to raise another another $100 million for programming at the college (of medicine).”
Harris writes, “CMU has committed to working with partners in Saginaw in support of efforts to raise $200M for the project, as stated in the resolution passed in December by our Board of Trustees – I have included the language of the resolution in the narrative below. We have not broken that figure down into any smaller amount, nor should our participation be considered a ‘match.’ Therefore, the language ‘$100 million building’ and the statement that ‘CMU is committing a $100 million match for general operating costs that would encompass staffing and programming,’ are inaccurate.”
Miller started his City Hall presentation with an overhead graphic image that cites 1,000 new jobs from the Medical Diamond. He did not specify prospective CMU College of Medicine new employment.
Harris clarifies, “We are not familiar with the origin of the figure ‘1,000 jobs created,’ and that projected job growth/job number should not be attributed to CMU or its College of Medicine. It may be that the overall Medical Diamond project has estimations for total jobs related to the overall project, but to date CMU does not have any estimates for job creation related to the College of Medicine and its goals in Saginaw.”
More details from CMU are provided to honor our request for the public to become more fully informed:
History of CMU’s College of Medicine: “In 1892, the Central Michigan Normal School was established to meet Michigan’s growing need for teachers and business leaders. Today, more than 130 years later, Central Michigan University is still pursuing its founding purpose: to meet the needs of the state it serves. Over the century since its founding, CMU has adapted its offerings to meet the changing needs of its students and surrounding communities, adding and expanding academic programs and improving student services. In recent decades, there has been a well-documented increase in Michigan’s need for healthcare professionals. In response, CMU has added or expanded programs to educate and train students to meet that need, including degree programs such as physician assistant, health care administration, physical therapy, athletic training and more.
“In 2010, CMU established its College of Medicine with a mission to educate diverse students and train culturally competent physicians who could provide care in underserved communities in Michigan and beyond. In addition to medical education, the College of Medicine carries out its mission of service in underserved areas through the outstanding research and service of its faculty, and with patient care clinics in the Great Lakes Bay Region. Current research areas include neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s), diabetes and heart disease, cancer, opioid abuse, woman and infant health, regional public health community education and outcomes projects, mosquito- and tick-borne disease, and inherited and acquired mitochondrial disease. The CMU College of Medicine is fully accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME).”
History of the CMU College of Medicine in Saginaw: “The establishment of CMU Medical Education Partners, based in Saginaw, in 2011 brought Central Michigan University together with the teaching hospitals at Ascension St. Mary’s and Covenant HealthCare. The three organizations signed a 25-year affiliation agreement in 2020. CMU College of Medicine and CMU Medical Education Partners now are able to provide eight residency and two fellowship programs, with a particular focus on the state’s highest-need areas, including family medicine, internal medicine, psychiatry and pediatrics. CMU also offers high-demand residency programs in emergency medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, podiatric medicine and surgery.
“As part of its goal to serve the Great Lakes Bay Region, and in its efforts to provide medical students with exceptional opportunities for clinical education, the CMU College of Medicine has had a significant presence in Saginaw, Michigan, for many years. Each year, two-thirds of CMU medical students complete their clinical training in Saginaw residency programs based in CMU Health clinics or with our partners at Covenant HealthCare and Ascension St. Mary’s Hospital. Remaining students complete their training at one of three clinical campus locations: MyMichigan Health Midland, Ascension St. John in Detroit, and Corewell Health in St. Joseph. The CMU College of Medicine also has access to high-quality pediatrics training and research through its affiliation with University Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
“There are several CMU Health Clinics currently providing much-needed access to clinical care in the Saginaw area. CMU Health also opened a new Women and Children’s Center in Saginaw, just one block away from the CMU College of Medicine Education building (on the Covenant campus, Cooper at Bond). The new comprehensive care center provides women and children from central and northern Michigan with services that include well visits, family planning, prenatal care and delivery, and more.
“In 2021, CMU College of Medicine and the Saginaw County Health Department signed a five-year agreement to expand public health offerings and to address community health issues in a collaborative way. Some of the regional issues the partnership is addressing include obesity, behavioral health, and pediatric and maternal health. Other collaborations and community partners include the Michigan Health Improvement Alliance, Transforming Health Regionally in a Vibrant Economy (THRIVE), the Saginaw County Medical Society, the Saginaw County Health Department and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and others.
“The Central Michigan region has the state’s greatest unmet need for mental health care, according to a 2019 study by Altarum. To help to address that need, CMU partnered with Covenant, Ascension and HealthSource of Saginaw to establish a psychiatry residency program. The recently launched Rural Health Equity Institute, embedded in the CMU College of Medicine, is partnering with community agencies including the Barb Smith Suicide Resource and Response Network, the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance and the state’s Area Health Education Centers to tackle a range of public health issues impacting underserved areas, including Saginaw. This includes suicide prevention and mental health care, addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences, and improving access to care via telehealth services.”
Future Focus: Expanding the reach of CMU College of Medicine: “CMU’s interest in growing and strengthening our presence in Saginaw is based on two goals: bringing together all four years of medical education in one location and expanding the footprint and impact of the CMU College of Medicine in underserved areas.
“When the CMU College of Medicine opened its doors to students on the Mount Pleasant, Michigan campus, the goal was to accommodate a class size of 64 students. As student interest and demand has increased over the years, CMU increased its class size to 104 students, exceeding the capacity of the Mount Pleasant facility. As a result, the College is now split: first- and second-year students are based in Mount Pleasant, while many third- and fourth-year students are based in Saginaw. Saginaw was the clear choice for expanding CMU’s medical education to bring all four years of students together: CMU’s College of Medicine already educates many of its students in Saginaw, as there are clinical rotations available in Saginaw through existing partnerships with Covenant and Ascension St. Mary’s, as well as the VA and other healthcare partners; and the higher density of health care organizations in the area offers greater opportunities for faculty and student research.
“Our second goal, which aligns with the overall mission of the college and of Central Michigan University, is to increase the footprint and impact of the CMU College of Medicine in underserved areas. Our goal is to be a primary provider of health education, trained medical professionals, research and service for underserved communities in Michigan. Saginaw and the Great Lakes Bay region are currently medically underserved. Already, partnerships and programs based in Saginaw, such as mental health collaborations and the Women and Children’s Center, have allowed CMU to increase the reach of our patient care and community health efforts.
“In early 2022, CMU’s Board of Trustees formed a Health Care Special Committee to consider how CMU could increase the impact of its healthcare programs. Based on their suggestions, in December 2022, the Board approved a recommendation to explore an expansion of the College of Medicine. University leaders and partners spent 2023 exploring options and opportunities.
“In December 2023, the Board of Trustees passed a resolution authorizing the university president and/or his designee to represent the university in working with the Saginaw Medical Diamond project. Dr. George Kikano, vice president of health affairs and dean of the CMU College of Medicine, serves as CMU’s representative on this project.
“The precise language of the December 2023 resolution, Support for Health Care Presence in Saginaw, follows:
“BE IT RESOLVED, that the Central Michigan University Board of Trustees authorizes the President or his designee to act on behalf of CMU in developing and implementing a new structure aligning CMU’s Undergraduate Medical Education (CMED) and Graduate Medical Education (CMEP) under a CMU-controlled and unified entity by July 1, 2025; and
“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the President or designee will represent CMU at the Saginaw Medical Diamond project with the intent of supporting the project’s efforts in their raising 200 million dollars by December 31, 2025, with the strategic vision to combine all four years of CMU Medical Education in a new CMU Medical Saginaw facility.”
Tom Miller, Saginaw Future’s vice president, explained: “Saginaw Future’s role in this project is to work with the City, County, Chamber, and others to prepare the infrastructure for a shovel ready site. Creating sites that are ready to go for development is a major focus for economic development practitioners across the state. We feel it is incredibly important for each community in our county to identify and make ready (to the extent possible) sites for various kinds of development. Those types of developments are driven by the leaders and stakeholders of each individual community. In this case, the City has long desired and put forth a tremendous amount of effort to revitalizing its downtown and riverfront. We see this as an extension of the work already accomplished to date, towards that effort.”
To view Miller’s December summary to the City Council, click here.
