In Northern Michigan, the Munson healthcare system is the largest hospital network and service provider in the majority of Northern Michigan and the eastern half of the Upper Peninsula. The entire system encompasses eight hospitals and this allows for people from surrounding towns to locate the closest hospital to them in order to receive the best care.
When local community member Kalin Sheick had her daughter prematurely she was able to travel from her home in Petoskey to the Munson Medical Center in Traverse City hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the only NICU in the hospital system. The team there was able to save her daughter’s life.
“She had a life threatening infection when she was born […] We had an amazing experience because the doctors are so amazing here and the nurses,” Sheick said.
Even though the team at the hospital was able to do amazing work, their current working environment is not the most beneficial and was not able to provide the best care for their littlest patients. Because of this, many families were forced to travel downstate to other hospitals to find better care and rooming conditions.
“I feel like she probably could have stayed here a little longer if we had more state of the art stuff before we had to go to Grand Rapids,” Sheick said.
Sheick and her daughter ended up staying in Grand Rapids for a total of 78 days. However, on May 28, 2026, the Munson hospital in Traverse City held the ground breaking event for a new NICU building.
“[It will give] our families and our staff, like, appropriate space. And like I said, it’s 10 times bigger than what we have now. And all of it is private rooms. So our families that are here for three or four months, they can stay, they can shower, they can sleep there with their baby, and not have to leave their baby,” Neonatologist and medical director of the NICU Dr. Matthew Arnold said.
This new addition will allow for families to stay in Traverse City and maintain some aspects of their normal lives while their child receives care from the most updated technology without needing to go downstate. At the event, the excitement was evident as this had been a long awaited day.
“My gosh, it’s been so long. I mean, we’ve been fundraising for this for almost 10 years. And as you know, and I’m just so grateful that it’s finally happening,” Arnold said.
The fundraising began in 2015 and the start of the project was delayed for a variety of reasons. Munson continued their fundraising up until the COVID pandemic, which caused the project to be pushed back. After COVID, construction costs had risen, which resulted in the need for more fundraising to be done.
“[We were] anticipating it happening much sooner [which] put pressure on us to make the space we have now work, and that’s been difficult. And for us, our staff, our families, it’s been difficult to wait this long,” Arnold said.
The new space will allow for more space for all the employees and families, along with new spaces specifically designed for the NICU babies. The entire space will be 22,000 square feet, a significant improvement. The building will hopefully be complete and open to patients in early 2028.
“Our current unit doesn’t have a single window so we can’t see outside and it can be isolating for staff and families that are there long term. All the rooms will have windows and not to mention a small space outside for staff for breaks,” neonatal nurse practitioner Ashley Purcell said.
At the ground-breaking event, various staff members and donors gathered to celebrate. The CEO of Munson Healthcare introduced the project before turning it over to various doctors and directors involved in the process. Each of the speakers took a moment to thank different people in the crowd, which reminded me of the popular proverb “it takes a village.” Each of the people in the crowd had a different connection to the new NICU and their impact will affect many generations to come.
“This is a huge deal for Northern Michigan and very, very exciting, and so many families will be impacted positively by this,” Sheick said.
