BHMC-Little Rock Celebrates 50th Anniversary of First Patient

It was a Sunday, March 3, 1974, when the first patient was admitted to the brand new Baptist Medical Center campus in west Little Rock as the hospital presented the patient with a bouquet of flowers and noted artist George Fisher was on hand to welcome her with a personalized sketch. The patient had put off entering the hospital until the new facility opened.

The new hospital building took 31 months to complete from groundbreaking to dedication. The original address for the new hospital at the time was 9600 W. 12th St. because that section of the road had not yet changed to Kanis Road and Interstate 630 did not yet extend that far west.

Bad weather and other construction delays meant the hospital wasn’t ready by the date for the dedication ceremony in January, which predated the hospital’s actual opening day by almost two months due to additional construction delays.