Inside Citizens Memorial Hospital’s Growth

Citizens Memorial Hospital (CMH) serves Bolivar and many of the surrounding small towns, making it responsible for serving more than 130,000 people. “Bolivar is at the center of our service area, but we serve people in eight counties so we’re drawing from a much bigger service area than just Bolivar itself,” says CMH CEO/Executive Director Michael Calhoun. “All of the rural communities around this region depend on CMH for their care.” 

This makes CMH’s medical emergency services essential and was ultimately the driving factor behind their current expansion project. “We have been working on a strategic plan to grow our hospital facilities and are currently in the middle of a large expansion of our current hospital that basically replaces all of our inpatient services and provides a new hospital here in Bolivar.” 

From the vast region they serve, CMH sees more than 20,000 ER visits a year. “Everybody’s aware that access to emergency services has been strained,” Calhoun says. “Our new ER moves from a 12 bed emergency department to a 29 bed, so we’re going to more than double our capacity with our facility space.”

In addition to the ER, the new updates also worked to create private, appropriately sized inpatient rooms. “We’re excited to be able to offer that to our communities, that when you come and you need a hospital stay, you can do so in a private room that’s state-of-the-art and really first class.” 

Their ICU will grow from an eight bed unit to 12, growing by 50% with the capacity to have 16 beds if needed with future growth. They will also move from having six to nine labor and delivery rooms with a dedicated waiting room for family. Other features of the expansion project include two new cath labs for cardiology procedures, additional operating room space and new support services like lab and pharmacy to take care of not just the hospital itself, but the entire healthcare system. The three-story structure is set to be complete January of 2026, and the entire project complete by fall of 2026. 

“Over the years, we’ve built quite an amazing healthcare system and have brought a lot of excellent physicians to CMH and to our community,” Calhoun says. “I really feel like this facility will better reflect the services that we provide now and then give us some facility room to grow in the future. We have a shell space on the third floor for future growth and even plans for how we would grow the new facility if we need to because I do think a new hospital will attract a lot of people, especially with new ER capacity where we can take more emergency patients.”

As part of this growth, CMH will continue to work closely with its doctors to establish programs based on needs. A prime example of this has been CMH’s work with Dr. Curtis Schreiber to be the first in the area to offer advanced treatments for Alzheimer's. “Dr. Schreiber shared his passion for research and finding answers with us because Alzheimer's affects so many people and their families,” Calhoun says. “It shows we really support physicians and the passions that they have to use their skills and expertise to make our community’s health better.” 

In another instance of this, CMH worked with Dr. Kurt Bravata to provide addiction recovery services. “He really had a passion for addiction recovery and taking care of people that are struggling when he saw the need in our communities,” Calhoun says. “So we sat down with him and we worked out a way for him to be able to do that as a part of his practice. It’s made a difference in a lot of lives through those treatments.” 

Calhoun considers putting physicians and their passions first one of CMH’s greatest tools for success. “When you have a medical staff that really believes in their hospital and the services they’re providing, I think people can notice it when they come in and get care at our facilities,” he says. “The secret to our success has just been that organizational culture. Everywhere you go, you can kind of feel the guiding service principles and culture of putting people first that has allowed us to grow.”