About Munson Healthcare

Northern Michigan’s Leading Healthcare System

Munson Healthcare is northern Michigan’s largest and leading healthcare system. Based in Traverse City, Mich., our team of medical experts, eight award-winning community hospitals, and related organizations serve people in 29 counties in northern Michigan.

Most of the region's 540,000 residents can receive comprehensive quality care in or near their local community with access to sophisticated diagnostic technology such as 3D tomography, advanced cancer and heart treatments, and the latest robotic technology, stereotactic radiosurgery, and non-invasive surgical procedures. 

Patients in northern Michigan also benefit from Munson Healthcare’s collaborative partnerships with major healthcare systems, including Mayo Clinic, Michigan Medicine, Corewell Health, and Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital.

Compassion is the Hallmark of Our Care

Our founding physician, James Decker Munson, MD, outlined his expectations for employees in 1907 by stating: “Employees shall cultivate quiet, kind, and dignified manners and politeness in all things. Kindness must underlie everything that is done for patients.”

Dr. Munson’s inspiring example of compassion and dignity is still found today in the way we care for patients. His pioneering spirit continues as we meet our patients’ needs with the latest in healthcare technology and evidence-based practices.

Above all, we keep each patient at the center of everything we do.

Quality is Our Core Value

We work every day to advance and enhance the quality of health and wellness in the communities we serve. Throughout Munson Healthcare, doctors, nurses, technicians, staff, and volunteers focus on providing high quality care and creating a safe environment. We ask: “How can we do this better?” and “What is best for our patients?”

If you are ill or injured, your entire healthcare team will work with you toward a single goal – restoring you to good health. Our promise is to provide that care as close to your home as possible.

The dedication of everyone at Munson Healthcare has resulted in consistent national recognition for high quality care.

Easy Access to Advanced Quality Care

We believe everyone should have easy access to quality healthcare. That’s why our heart, cancer, and orthopedic specialists travel throughout northern Michigan to see patients in their communities. That’s also why we have established infusion and chemotherapy centers, sophisticated lab, imaging, and rehabilitation centers, throughout northern Michigan.

You are never far from high quality primary and specialty care.

Mission

Munson Healthcare and its partners will work together to provide superior quality care and promote community health.

Purpose

We improve lives.

Vision

To be our communities’ trusted source of compassionate, seamless care for another 100 years.

Munson Healthcare Hospitals and Entities

Hospitals

Partners

Munson Healthcare By the Numbers

  • 8 hospitals
  • 694 licensed acute care beds
  • 212 licensed long-term care beds
  • 7,500 employees
  • 1,000 physicians
  • 63 specialties
  • 540,000 residents
  • We cover 14,667 square miles – about the size of Vermont and Delaware combined.
  • Munson Healthcare Home Health and Munson Healthcare Hospice serve 29 counties.

Community Benefit

As a non-profit healthcare system, Munson Healthcare provides more than $170 million annually in:

  • Community education
  • Free, discounted and unreimbursed healthcare services
  • Healthcare programs

A Brief History: How Our System Came to Be

Each of our eight hospitals has a long history of serving its community well. Our hospitals in Cadillac, Grayling, and Traverse City were founded more than 100 years ago. Charlevoix Hospital has served its community since 1919.

In Traverse City, the 55-bed James Decker Munson Hospital opened in 1925. It replaced a temporary general hospital opened in a Northern Michigan Asylum cottage in 1915. Thanks to tremendous community support, the hospital expanded over the decades to become a 442-bed nationally-recognized regional referral center. It was renamed Munson Medical Center in 1964 to reflect its regional role and wide range of services.

Munson Medical Center became affiliated with Kalkaska Memorial Health Center through a management agreement in 1976, but the system wasn’t formed until 1985 when Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital in Frankfort affiliated with Munson Medical Center. With that agreement, Munson Healthcare was officially organized as a system of hospitals and healthcare providers.

The Munson Healthcare system has continued to grow with the integration and affiliation of Cadillac Hospital, Charlevoix Hospital, Grayling Hospital, Manistee Hospital, and Otsego Memorial Hospital.

Munson Healthcare vs. Munson Medical Center: What’s the Difference?

Munson Healthcare is a system of eight community hospitals located throughout northern Michigan. Munson Medical Center, located in Traverse City, is one of the eight hospitals in the Munson Healthcare system and is the regional referral center.