Munson Healthcare

Munson Healthcare Manistee Hospital is closing their maternity unit on May 31. Many residents criticized that plan at a town hall on Saturday.

Jessica Cracraft is 28 weeks pregnant and says she planned on giving birth at the hospital.

"I don't want to have to go to a new hospital. I don't want to have new nurses, and I don't want to have a new doctor," Cracraft said. "I only have 11 weeks left."

State Representative Jack O’Malley (R-Lake Ann) said the closure will make Manistee less attractive to young people.

The hospital in Manistee will close their maternity unit on May 31. In a statement, the CEO of Munson Healthcare Manistee Hospital James Barker says providing maternity services is a challenge for rural hospitals.

Nurses at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City have their first labor contract. They reached a tentative agreement with the hospital last weekend.

Dozens of people marched in Traverse City Thursday night in support of nurses at Munson Medical Center. The nurses are bargaining with hospital management for their first labor contract.

Nurses and their supporters marched along Division Street wearing red T-shirts and waving signs with slogans like “Patients Over Profits” and “Safe Staffing Saves Lives.”

Right now, if a children get sick in the Cadillac region, they can be hospitalized as an inpatient at Munson Healthcare Cadillac Hospital. Beginning in May, those kids will be sent to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City or Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids.

The only urgent care facility in Leelanau County has closed. Leelanau Urgent Care in Suttons Bay shut its doors this month when owners Dave and Janice Lemak moved.

The Lemaks had run the facility for the last 14 years, according to the Leelanau Enterprise. They moved to Reno, Nevada.

Urgent care facilities typically treat patients who require immediate care, but don’t need an emergency room.

Michelle Klein with the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department says the facility will be missed.

Munson Healthcare is ready to acquire two more hospitals. The Traverse City-based system has signed a letter of intent to purchase Mercy Hospital Grayling and Mercy Hospital Cadillac.

The hospitals are now owned by CHE Trinity Health, a Catholic system with hospitals in 20 states and many in southern Michigan. Both have had a shared management arrangement with Munson for more than a decade.

Ed Ness, president and CEO of Munson Healthcare, says the move makes sense since the nearest Trinity Hospitals are in Muskegon and Grand Rapids.

Munson Healthcare broke ground today on a new cancer center in Traverse City.

The man who donated $5 million to the center, Casey Cowell, praised Munson for the new venture. Cowell says the region is “extremely fortunate” to have Munson based in Traverse City.

Munson Hospice is now the only hospice allowed to offer patient care inside Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. The change was made November first.

President of Home Health Shari Wilson says patients served by other area hospice providers will no longer enter the hospital for in-patient care.