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BBGH Trustees approve remodeling The Rehab & Wellness Center

The Box Butte General Hospital (BBGH) Board of Trustees held a special meeting Wednesday January 13 at 7:30am to hear a proposal by BBGH Administration to move forward with the last piece of the new construction/renovation project: The expansion and remodeling of The Rehab & Wellness Center (RWC) outpatient care area.

CEO Dan Griess, FACHE, stressed that increases in volumes has been the driving factor for the need to expand and remodel the RWC. “We’ve seen large increases in rehabilitation volumes due to our orthopedic surgery services increasing exponentially,” he said. “With our new orthopedic spine surgery and orthopedic foot and ankle surgery programs ready to begin in early 2016, I expect our volumes for rehabilitation will continue to grow and the current space will not serve the needs of our patients.”

Physical Therapists Brandon Kiser, DPT and Tim Devlin, DPT, said the new RWC will not only eliminate the tight spaces in which staff treat patients, but also eliminate space issues when it comes to patients who are waiting to be seen. Often times, patients are waiting out in the public hallway near the entrance because there is no room in the waiting area.  It was pointed out that therapy treatments are often performed in the public hallways of the hospital due to inadequate space in the RWC.  Adult patients are walked around the hallways of BBGH and children ride on small wheeled carts up and down the hallways of BBGH as part of their treatment. The expanded RWC will allow all therapies to be done in more private patient care treatment areas and private treatment rooms where the current space is separated by curtains making it very difficult to maintain private conversations during a patient’s treatment.  The new space will also allow patients to use dedicated strength building equipment, eliminating another privacy issue. At present, patients receive therapy on the same fitness equipment utilized by BBGH staff and members of the community in the Fitness Center. It will also allow Cardio-Pulmonary Rehabilitation to be relocated into the new area, a service currently located in Building 2307 to the north of the hospital.  

Mr. Griess informed the board that Beckenhauer Construction has finalized the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) for the project, coming in at $3,169,889. He said approving the GMP will allow Beckenhauer to more or less do both the Multi-Specialty Clinic (MSC) expansion and the RWC remodel and expansion at the same time. “They will start demolition of the old MSC and Emergency Department (ED) area starting next week,” he said. “Once demolition is complete contractors will be able to move to the Rehab area and start demolition work there … once framing is finished on the MSC/ED project,  contractors can then start on the Rehab project … and so on and so forth.”

The Box Butte Health Foundation Capital Campaign, which is currently in its silent phase, will provide partial funding for the remodel.  BBGH Controller Bridget Miller, CPA, presented the financials to demonstrate the hospital’s cash flow and financial forecast can support the project. Mr. Griess stressed that those numbers were based on very conservative budget forecasts. “Two years ago when we developed the financial forecast we utilized in obtaining the USDA loan, our forecast was very conservative,” he said. “The first year, our actual monthly volumes were significantly higher than the numbers we used for our financial forecast to get the loan,” he said. “This growth has continued into our current fiscal year and we’re confident the projected revenue, which is again conservative, will be able to cover the expenses related to the project.”  Mr. Griess said the MSC/ED remodel project will take between five and six months, with the RWC project taking around 13 months.

After the Trustees asked several questions ranging from needing additional details on how revenue projections were reached to questions relating to the utilization of the new space, a motion was made to approve the Guaranteed Maximum Price as presented. All trustees voted to approve the GMP, except for Trustee Tom Furman, DVM, who said he was abstaining due to not having been able to review the financials prior to the meeting. The board adjourned at 8:11am.

Box Butte General Hospital is an equal opportunity provider and employer.