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Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published September 22, 2006

Detroit – To maintain its role as one of metro Detroit's leading hospitals, and enhance its ability to serve patients, St. John Hospital and Medical Center is undergoing a $156 million expansion and renovation project.

"This project is a re-investment in our communities, and in our role as a world-class, regional destination hospital for primary and advanced medical treatment, teaching and exceptional service to patients," said Mark Taylor, president of the hospital that has been a landmark structure on Moross Road near Mack since 1952.

Artist’s rendering shows new North Pavilion of St. John Hospital and Medical Center as it will look upon completion.

Steel girders started going up last month to build the hospital's new six-story North Pavilion, following more than a year of demolition and site preparation work, including construction of a new 44,000-square-foot underground receiving dock and materials management center.

A capital campaign is under way to raise $25 million of the total cost, with the rest being funded from the St. John Health System's own resources. No debt financing is being used.

Altogether, the project will add 332,000 square feet of space to what is already the major provider of health care serving northeastern Wayne County, eastern Macomb County and St. Clair County.

Top physicians, top rankings
The more than 1,000 physicians on the hospital's medical staff attend to some 35,000 admissions and approximately 90,000 emergency room visits annually.

The hospital's bigness does make a difference for patients, says Dave Sessions, vice president for affiliated services of St. John Health and project manager for the expansion.

"When you have the size and the volume St. John's has, it allows you to attract the best specialists," Sessions says.

"St. John Hospital was recently named one of the top 15 major teaching hospitals among the top 100 hospitals in the United States, which puts it into a group that includes Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic. And it is the only Catholic hospital in Michigan in that category," he continues.

And, Sessions adds, "That's a major achievement. When you're in the top 15 in the United States, you're in the top 15 in the world."

The ranking was made by Solucient, a nationally known source of health care information and research based in Evanston, Ill.

Photo by Karl Ford | St. John Hospital Dave Sessions, a vice president of St. John Health, stands in front of the new North Pavilion being built at St. John Hospital and Medical Center, Detroit.

New North Pavilion
The first three levels of the new North Pavilion are expected to be ready to open in September 2007, including the hospital's new Heart and Circulatory Center, outpatient imaging and diagnostic center, and new main entrance and atrium lobby, as well as a new cafeteria on its lower level.

The top four levels of the North Pavilion, which will provide 144 new private patient rooms, are expected to open in February 2009.

The relocating the hospital's main entrance to the north side of the building, near most of the parking areas, the North Pavilion will also make the hospital's non-emergency services more easily accessible, Sessions says.

New emergency room
Big changes are also coming to the hospital's emergency room in the existing structure as part of the project. "We want to improve the emergency department experience for patients. We're doubling the size, with the aim of offering better treatment," he says.

New treatment rooms will be up to twice the size of current treatment areas, which will reduce noise and improve confidentiality, Sessions explains.

Even in older portions of the hospital building, patient rooms will be reconfigured to provide for more private rooms for patients.

Hospital a pioneer
Sessions spoke of St. John Hospital's many pioneering achievements, such as Michigan's first closed-chest heart bypass surgery performed earlier this year using the DaVinci robot.

The hospital was the first in southeast Michigan and one of the first in the nation to implant stents in cardioid arteries as an alternative to traditional surgery, to perform abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery using stents, and to use minimally invasive heart surgery to replace the mitral valve.

Catholic mission, identity
It isn't just its medical firsts that sets St. John Hospital apart, but also the fact it is a Catholic hospital.

"I think what separates us from the non-Catholic hospitals is our values and the strength of our values, and how they're ingrained in the program. We truly have a mission, and we believe in that mission," Sessions says.

According to St. John Health's mission statement, "St. John Health, as a Catholic health ministry, is committed to providing spiritually centered, holistic care which sustains and improves the health of individuals in the communities we serve, with special attention to the poor and vulnerable."

The hospitals of the St. John Health System provided more than $142 million in community benefit and care for the poor in fiscal year 2004-2005, reaching 194,000 people.

The hospital's Catholic identity "is at our very core – it's more than just a job," he adds.

And it is not just the Catholics among the hospital's 4,900 employees who feel it, Sessions adds.

For example, when preliminary sketches of the new addition were revealed, it looked like the chapel might not be preserved, "we probably had even more non-Catholics than Catholic employees coming to us and saying, 'Can't we preserve the chapel?"

St. John Hospital and Medical Center is at 22101 Moross Road near Mack Avenue, Detroit 48236, telephone (313) 343-4000.