Construction on the new Medical Office Building at the Beatrice Community Hospital continues to move forward. After breaking ground a year ago on the new addition to the hospital, doors to the new office building are scheduled to open in early May.

Eric Trusty, Senior Executive of Clinic Services at BCH, says an exact opening date should be decided in the next couple of weeks.

“We still can’t nail down an exact move date yet. We are still working on that with the contractors but hopefully in the next two to three weeks we will be able to nail down that exact date with patients in the new clinic.”

Trusty says the construction process has gone well over the past year.

“We are finally getting glass in the windows. They were able to take down the plywood windows. Inside a lot of progress is going on. We were in there yesterday and doing a little update and most of the drywall is done, painting is going forward and they are working on ceiling tiles. One thing that they are waiting on now is all the cabinetry to come in. Once that comes in then they will really start to move forward. Once that is done we start carpet and flooring and start putting up the furniture and start thinking about moving in.”

Trusty says the covid pandemic taught hospital officials a lot about what is needed in health care and what is needed in a health care facility.

“We learned a lot during covid. A lot of the design of this building really took place during that time so a lot of the features that we have tried to mitigate as far as covid and keeping people out of waiting rooms and keeping apart from other folks we took into consideration with the building. Really the goal is that you don’t wait that long in a waiting room. Most medical office building designs are going to smaller waiting rooms as again we don’t want people congregating in a waiting room.”

The new Medical Office Building will bring in all Beatrice providers into one facility that will feature nine examination rooms.

With a target date of early May to open the new building, Trusty says plans are underway on how moving day will take place.

“Once we are able to identify that date it will be kind of a Thursday afternoon and a Friday prior to the opening. We will still have some availability for providers or patients to be seen in a couple of areas so we aren’t completely shut down for a day and a half to two days. It will be like a long weekend like a Thanksgiving weekend that the move will take place.”

Trusty says the new addition will provide all medical services at one location. Plus, there will be more opportunity to coordinate with providers and specialists.

Trusty made his comments during KWBE’s "TO YOUR HEALTH" program on Wednesday morning.