2000 - 2005
The BBGH Board of Trustees approved expanding the hospital in 2000. At left are Trustee board members and BBGH staff members during the groundbreaking ceremony that year. At right is a photo of the entrances to the Michael F. Essay Sr. Multispecialty Clinic and Emergency Department.
In the late 1990s, the health care industry was changing in dramatic ways, especially in the areas of in-patient and out-patient care. Box Butte General Hospital and its Board of Trustees recognized the fact that more and more services were going to be provided through out-patient services. As a result, in 2000 the hospital approved a 19,000 square foot expansion project to provide room for outpatient services and to provide room for other departments, as well. The $3.5-million project was helped by a generous $200,000 donation from benefactor Mike Essay, Sr. The Michael F. Essay, Sr. Outpatient Center Multi-Specialty Clinic was completed in 2001.
The Multi-Specialty Clinic provided patients the convenience of seeing specialists in Alliance, eliminating the need to travel long distances.
How the BBGH campus looked up until the 2013 building project.
The expansion project also provided much needed room for a new Rehabilitation Department; provided room for a new Emergency Department, as well a new Outpatient Surgery Preparation and Recovery area. Pharmacy, Business Office and Administrative Departments were other branches located into the newly expanded building. The project allowed the hospital to renovate 13,000 square feet of existing building as well, including its corridors, Radiology Department, Laboratory, Surgical locker-rooms and lounge, as well as the Dialysis Unit. The expansion and renovation project was dedicated during a ceremony held on September 29, 2001.
