U.P. county loses its only hospital in what residents call ‘life or death situation’

A minute before midnight on Friday, April 19, the only hospital in one of Michigan's largest counties stopped taking emergency patients. Shortly afterward, tarps covered the signs at the Aspirus Ontonagon Hospital at the western edge of the Upper Peninsula, barricades were erected, lights out.

Earlier that same Friday, crews from the Michigan Department of Transportation removed three blue roadside hospital signs in the Village of Ontonagon. And all of a sudden this small, rural community on the shores of Lake Superior no longer had a hospital or an emergency room.

The closest emergency room is now a 45-minute drive away — a treacherous and even longer trip in a fierce U.P. winter storm.

"I feel robbed of our economic future. It's really a crisis," said resident Cheryl Sundberg, who runs a summer music festival in the nearby Porcupine Mountains.

Indeed, experts say, the economy of a community and the health of its hospital are closely intertwined: Can a community without a hospital attract new businesses, new teachers, new residents? At the same time, hospitals create jobs and keep local businesses like florists or landscapers afloat.

Aspirus, a nonprofit chain of hospitals based in Wausau, Wisconsin, gave the community two months' notice that it was closing its Ontonagon hospital, despite earlier promises that it would build a new, $15.8 million facility with inpatient beds and an emergency department.

On same day in February that it announced it was ending emergency services and turning the hospital in Ontonagon into a clinic, Aspirus announced a $30 million investment in another Upper Peninsula hospital.

Aspirus first announced the new building for Ontonagon in September 2021 and in a March 2022 news release said plans for the hospital were being finalized, according to a Feb. 29 letter to the Aspirus president and CEO, Matthew Heywood, from U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, state Sen. Ed McBroom, and state Rep. Gregory Markkanen, all Republicans.

The lawmakers' letter said it appears that news release is "no longer available to view on the Aspirus Health's website." The Free Press left messages with two Aspirus officials, which were not immediately returned.

But in response to the lawmakers' letter, Aspirus said the decision to turn the Ontonagon hospital into clinic, was "not about money."

Health care needs in Ontonagon have changed, and the hospital was seeing an average of just one patient a day, and an average of five patients a day in the emergency department. And up to half of those emergency patients could be treated more effectively in a clinic, the hospital said in its response to lawmakers.

"These realities lead us to transition our services to best benefit the community," the letter said, citing same-day primary care at the clinic, along with lab and imaging services, a pharmacy, and occupational, speech, and physical therapy.

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The clinic will be open weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the Aspirus website.

Aspirus said it remains committed to the Upper Peninsula, including making significant improvements at its hospital in Ironwood and a $30 million investment in its hospital in Laurium, in the Keweenaw Peninsula. It has a third U.P. hospital in Iron River and about a dozen others in Wisconsin.

But as a nonprofit health system serving a vast geographic and mostly rural area, Aspirus said it must thoughtfully leverage its resources "in ways that best meet changing community needs."

It noted that since 2010, more than 80 rural hospitals have completely closed and more than 65 converted to new models. These closures have been driven, in part, experts say, by changing demographics, difficulties in recruiting doctors and other staff, rising costs, and dwindling revenues.

Aspirus bought the hospital in Ontonagon from the village for $1 in 2007, and the village agreed to cover the pension liability for 134 former employees.

"This favorable arrangement for Aspirus was made to ensure that health services would be able to be maintained for residents and visitors in the Ontonagon area," the three lawmakers said in their letter.

Michigan now has a dozen rural counties with no acute care hospital, and a 13th county, Cheboygan, doesn't have a hospital but does have access to emergency services through McLaren Northern Michigan's campus in the city of Cheboygan, according to the Michigan Health & Hospital Association.

"It's a hard business," said Mark Holmes, director of the Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which tracks rural hospital closures.

Now that they're without their hospital, residents of Ontonagon are worried: for their health; for the hundreds of thousands of hikers and other visitors who come to the Porcupine Mountains every year and the inevitable ones who get lost or injured; for the employees of local businesses hurt on the job; and for their community's economic future.

"I don't know how you have a community without a hospital and schools," said Marty Fittante, chief executive of InvestUP, which promotes economic development in the Upper Peninsula. "A hospital is foundational to a community."

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J.R. Richardson, who was on the Aspirus UP regional board until January 2024, said Ontonagon once had a paper mill, a copper mine, and a ship-building company. However, the lack of an emergency room will "deter further business development."

Richardson said the community is planning a picnic on June 8 in appreciation of hospital employees.

Ken Waldrop, a member of the Ontonagon Village Council, said local leaders tried to persuade Aspirus to keep the hospital open and even turned to the governor's office. He and others said their pleas were not heard.

"It was a cry for help from up here that went unheard," Waldrop said.

And now, Richardson said, "it's a life or death situation."

Contact Jennifer Dixon: jbdixon@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: U.P. county loses its only hospital in what residents call ‘life or death situation’