GVSU, Mary Free Bed to announce expanded partnership

Leaders from Grand Valley and Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital are expanding their partnership, which will strengthen the region's health care talent pipeline and serve the needs of rehabilitation patients.

The two organizations have a long history of collaboration. Mary Free Bed serves as a clinical site for Grand Valley nursing, therapy and non-clinical students with annual in-kind instruction time topping $1 million dollars. Mary Free Bed has also contributed to Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall, Grand Valley’s new health sciences building.

Now the two organizations are sharing a Motion Analysis Lab located in Grand Valley’s Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences in downtown Grand Rapids. Mary Free Bed specialists conduct sophisticated studies of patient walking patterns and serve as preceptors to Grand Valley students and graduate fellows. Details of the announcement will be made Thursday, January 11.

President Thomas J. Haas said strengthening the existing partnership with Mary Free Bed continues the university's commitment to providing relevant and timely learning opportunities for students. 

"We’re so very pleased that our colleagues at Mary Free Bed want to bring the great work from their own Motion Analysis Lab to our facility and work alongside our students and faculty members," Haas said. "This aligns with Grand Valley's strategic plan to produce graduates who are ready for the workforce and meets employer demands for trained health care workers."

Mary Free Bed CEO Kent Riddle echoes the benefits of collaboration. “Teaching the next generation of medical professionals is one of the factors that makes a hospital excel,” Riddle said. “And our patients are well-served by the Grand Valley grads that we hire.”