New Traverse City Clinic Brings Transplant Care Closer to Home

On November 17, 2025 University of Michigan Health and Munson Healthcare announced a partnership to expand liver and kidney transplant specialty services with a new clinic in Traverse City. The local clinic will handle evaluation screening and ongoing specialty care so patients in Grand Traverse County and the surrounding region can access transplant expertise closer to home. Transplant operations themselves will continue to take place at established transplant centers for surgery such as Ann Arbor, while the Traverse City site will focus on faster assessments and coordination.

For many northern Michigan residents the nearest transplant center required almost eight hours round trip travel to Ann Arbor for initial work up and follow up. By moving essential evaluation services into the region the new clinic aims to reduce that travel burden and the time patients and families spend away from work and home. Patients will be able to receive in person consultations as well as telehealth visits with transplant specialists, which officials say will smooth scheduling and shorten the time from referral to decision.

A noted enabler of improved regional coordination is new machine perfusion technology that helps keep organs viable for longer periods. That technology allows for longer transport windows and more flexibility for last minute organ allocation and transfer. In practice this can increase the feasibility of accepting organs that require more travel time and can make it easier for surgeons and transplant teams to coordinate care across sites.

Clinicians involved in the partnership emphasized reducing geographic barriers to life saving transplant care while also adding liver disease prevention services to support regional needs. Building prevention and early intervention programs alongside specialty referral services acknowledges that many patients benefit from earlier detection of liver disease and comprehensive care before transplantation becomes necessary.

Local health systems will need to coordinate patient records scheduling and post procedure follow up between the Traverse City clinic and the surgical centers. For patients this model promises less travel reduced out of pocket costs and more timely access to specialist expertise. For families the clinic could mean fewer long drives and more local support during complex care journeys.

The announcement marks a significant step in expanding specialty medical services in northern Michigan. As the new clinic is established residents of Grand Traverse County can expect faster evaluations and closer coordination with transplant teams while surgeries continue at experienced transplant centers such as the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.