Boone Hospital Center is a 400-bed full service hospital located in Columbia, MO. It is a regional referral center located in the center of the state. The hospital provides progressive healthcare programs, services, and technology to people in 26 mid-Missouri counties.
Although the hospital is full service, areas in which Boone Hospital Center excels are cardiology, neurology, oncology, surgical, obstetrical services, and numerous other specialties. The hospital maintains a 24-hour emergency center with hospital-based ambulance service and a helipad for incoming emergency air transportation. The hospital employs over 2000 on its staff and 350 physicians on the medical staff.
Boone Hospital Center is a leader in providing the latest technology, including an innovative surgery center offering progressive endoscopic and laser surgery procedures. The hospital provides numerous community educational lectures and events, centering on disease prevention and wellness.
To help community members make healthy lifestyle choices, Boone Hospital Center created WELLAWARE - a collection of resources and programs that encourage wellness and prevention. Working with mid-Missouri employers to promote good health on the job (such as becoming a tobacco-free workplace), WELLAWARE offers resources in occupational medicine, behavioral health, and BHC's various prevention and fitness programs to the community at large in Columbia, MO.
History Of Boone Hospital Center
Since as far back as the early 1800s–when the Boone's Lick Trail winding through Columbia was thick with west-bound settlers–Columbia has been known as a respite for the sick and weary, a community where folks are friendly and willing to lend a hand to those in need. The heavily traveled trail was rough on the best of days, but when wet and muddy it was nearly impassable. Many's the time a discouraged band of travelers found themselves hopelessly mired, particularly as they struggled to climb the steep hill at the east edge of town. And then–just when the dream of being a pioneer seemed a bad idea indeed–some of the locals would show up to help push, pull and coax the oxen teams and wagons up the grade. What a relief it was to reach the top, to sit and rest under the shade trees for a spell and visit with the generous residents of this tiny town. How fitting, then, that atop that same hill now stands a lasting symbol of that helpfulness and sense of community: Boone Hospital Center.
The very first public hospital in the county, Boone County Hospital saw its beginnings in an era when people relied largely on home remedies and prayer to fight off disease. Outbreaks of cholera, typhus, yellow fever and malaria killed thousands as disease swept through the region, and many families lost little ones to such childhood diseases as measles, croup and whooping cough. Gradually, though, hospitals began to spring up in smaller cities and towns throughout the country, and in 1917, the Missouri state legislature passed a measure allowing counties to raise money for building public health facilities. Dr. Frank G. Nifong, a prominent local physician, was instrumental in getting another bill passed that allowed individual counties to hold elections on the issue of a public hospital. Nifong had left his practice in St. Louis to move to Columbia, the hometown of his wife, the former Lavinia Lenoir. He was deeply committed to ensuring good medical care for the people of the area and insisted that a modern hospital was the key.
