Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee gets $10M grant for expansion
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In rural southern Arizona, people often travel to Tucson for over an hour to access care. However, with new federal funding flowing toward an expansion of a hospital in Bisbee, more people will be able to get care closer to home.
The Copper Queen Community Hospital received a $10 million grant from the federal government to help expand the facility, benefiting 28,000 residents, according to U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.
The expansion will consist of building a two-story facility connected to the hospital’s existing facility, with a state-of-the-art surgery department, a new inpatient unit, and upgraded patient rooms. Modernization of the patient rooms will, in part, include adding safety equipment to help nursing staff.
Last week, Sinema and Kelly announced the grant award, which comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Emergency Rural Health Care Grants Program.
“Today’s funds will expand Bisbee’s Copper Queen Community Hospital ― improving access to high-quality health care for southeastern Arizonans and fueling economic opportunities in the region,” Sinema said in a news release.
Copper Queen Community Hospital CEO Robert Seamon said upgrading the hospital will also help recruit additional surgeons.
He noted that the additional workforce will help mitigate some of the need for patients to travel 100 miles to Tucson for care.
This expansion occurs as rural hospital closures have become a norm. A 2022 study from the American Hospital Association showed that between 2010 and 2021, 136 rural hospitals closed, threatening access to care for communities across the nation. Just last year, the hospital in Green Valley also shut its doors.
The Copper Queen Community Hospital is bucking that trend. The hospital's expansion “will allow us to get patients in sooner. It will allow us to do surgeries and endoscopy procedures and at the same time,” Seamon said.
In addition to expanding the surgery department, the hospital plans to expand its orthopedics program to include joint replacement, which the current hospital doesn’t have space to do.
The $23 million expansion project is currently in the planning phase and expected to break ground next year. Additional funding will come from the hospital and fundraising led by the Copper Queen Community Hospital Foundation.
Hospital officials identified the necessity for an expansion five years ago, realizing the building was aging and the hospital needed more space to conduct the procedures that residents needed.
“Arizonans in every corner of our state need access to quality health care. Rural hospitals like Copper Queen are primed to take advantage of investments that allow health professionals to treat more patients and provide better care,” Kelly said in a news release. “This funding will improve health outcomes for thousands of Arizonans who call Cochise County home.”
Reach reporter Sarah Lapidus at sarah.lapidus@gannett.com.
The Republic’s coverage of southern Arizona is funded, in part, with a grant from Report for America. Support Arizona news coverage with a tax-deductible donation at supportjournalism.azcentral.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Copper Queen Hospital in Cochise County gets $10M grant for expansion
