Bethany Children’s breaks ground for new outpatient center
BETHANY, Okla. (KFOR) – Thursday marked a milestone for Bethany Children’s Health Center. An official groundbreaking was held for a new hospital building that officials are calling a landmark of hope along Route 66.
With the groundbreaking, the health center is officially expanding with a project that hospital officials said should easily help thousands of kids across the state and region.
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“We’re serving about 30,000 kids a year and we can easily double that right when we open,” said the health center’s CEO Nico Gomez.
Renderings show the building standing four stories tall with a colorful caterpillar out front. Gomez said the $178 million project will serve as a pediatric rehabilitation center. He added that it will also help with the rising demand for their outpatient services.
Bethany Children’s expansion rendering. Image courtesy Bethany Children’s Health Center. Bethany Children’s expansion rendering. Image courtesy Bethany Children’s Health Center.
“We’re going to have some of the state-of-the-art equipment that you can’t find anywhere else,” Gomez said.
It’s a celebration that will also create a couple hundred jobs after opening. The development comes 126 years since 1898. That’s the year the health center started as an orphanage before moving to Bethany in 1909 and eventually transformed into a health care center. Gomez said this project is what was envisioned all those years ago.
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“I also stand on the shoulders of many leaders who served before us,” he said. “Now it’s the next generation that’s getting ready to really just take the reins and lead us into the future.”
The center is slated to be finished in about 2 and a half years. Gomez said he believes the amount of patients they help will also continue to grow over the next 10-15 years.
To learn more, visit bethanychildrens.org.
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