For more than three years, Action of Greater Lansing has been working with MSU’s Children’s Health Initiative and Sparrow Hospital to build a system that benefits the children within our region by creating a robust system of pediatric subspecialists as close to home as possible. We were confident that MSU was committed to this, because in May 2009, MSU officials promised Action of Greater Lansing that they were committed to the vision of creating an integrated Children’s Subspecialty Health Center in Greater Lansing and working toward giving traditionally underserved children fair access to the center.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out that way. The university has dismantled most of the Children’s Health Initiative and has moved its Department of Pediatrics and Human Development to Grand Rapids.
Our organization had hoped MSU would help address and alleviate some of the stress that families with seriously ill children feel when their kids need frequent outpatient services. The case has been made that Lansing needs a collaborative and coordinated care center that brings together the diverse expertise, knowledge and experience of our community-based professionals and institutions.
The cost to Lansing’s families and community also has been well-documented. And yet MSU has decided to turn its back on Lansing’s sickest children, who will continue to have to travel to other cities for frequent outpatient subspecialty services. MSU seems to be hoping that all the dollars such a center could have generated for Lansing and the jobs associated with it will be captured in Grand Rapids. It seems that MSU has made a financial decision it intends to pay for on the backs of Lansing’s families and kids.
We hope all Mid-Michigan residents who care about Greater Lansing’s children and families will join Action of Greater Lansing on April 13 as we ask the MSU Board of Trustees why Lansing’s kids don’t deserve the access to local health care providers that kids in other Michigan cities have.
Fred Thelen, pastor, Cristo Rey Church, co-president of Action of Greater Lansing
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