Founded by Dr. Jawad Shah in 2008, Insight Institute of Neurosurgery and Neurosciences provides clinical services to patients in Genesee County. What began in the former GM HQ (Great Lakes Technology Center) in Flint with one neurosurgeon and a staff of four has grown to over 1,200 employees and expanded to campus locations in Chicago, Dearborn and Warren, MI. In the fall of 2024, Insight will expand once again – this time, adding a new building and services to the Flint facility.
“The project will happen in stages with the first stage expected to take 6-9 months,” says founder and current Insight CEO Dr. Jawad Shah. “We foresee the project possibly coming to completion in two years.”
The new medical psychiatric hospital will be the first in Genesee County and, upon completion, will offer 70 beds for people in need of care for both medical and psychiatric conditions of differing severity. Patients will be referred to the new specialty facility from area hospitals, group homes and other organizations. Currently, those patients are being transferred to hospitals in Saginaw, Detroit or Ann Arbor. “The new specialty hospital will provide inpatient psychiatric services to the most brittle of patients who will be treated in a holistic manner,” says Dr. Shah. “Poor mental and behavioral health are becoming the biggest unidentified pandemics in the country. It’s a growing problem and we have to address it in a different way.” The new building will allow Insight to help considerably more patients suffering with depression, anxiety, personality and neurological disorders.
“The new specialty hospital will provide inpatient psychiatric services to the most brittle of patients so that they are being taken care of in a holistic manner.”
Jawad A. Shah, MD
The project will require a complete gutting and internal renovation of the former Fisher Body #1 Plant building located at 4300 S. Saginaw St. The structure’s outer walls will remain intact with slight cosmetic changes. Supported by a $2.5 million grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the first stage of renovation will be the addition of 16 beds, after which the facility will begin receiving patients. Each additional stage will add patient beds until all 70 are → ready. The project’s total cost is expected to fall between $15 and $20 million. The Insight expansion will also bring more jobs to the area.
For Dr. Shah, the completion of the project can not come soon enough. “In the last few years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the presentation of mental illness,” he says. “It is a need that is growing. We are seeing a lot more veterans struggling with mental illness, and a problem growing in younger people struggling with depression. I have a feeling that when the new hospital is completed, it will fill very quickly.
“Insight takes a holistic view to mental illness treatment,” he continues. “Simply prescribing medication doesn’t affect the underlying problem. We address it by looking at the social determinants of illness such as job loss or grief and work to heal the entire individual.”
The new specialty hospital will allow Insight professionals to better work toward their mission “to deliver compassionate, world-class care to every patient.
