Citizens Health Medical Center Replacement Hospital

For the nine counties of rural northwest Kansas, the nearest full-service hospital was once a long drive away. Now, a new 25-bed critical access hospital in Colby, Kansas, delivered by McCarthy, stands as the only facility offering complete family care between Hays, Kansas, and Denver, Colorado. At 173,000 square feet, the replacement hospital is one of the largest USDA-funded critical access hospitals in the nation.

The facility consolidates services onto a single, modern campus: a full-service emergency department, inpatient beds and a surgery department with an orthopedic focus, comprising four operating rooms and multiple procedure rooms. A clinic supports 42 medical specialists across 30 physician offices, backed by laboratory, radiology, physical therapy, pharmacy, infusion and oncology services.

Delivered through a design-assist approach, the project’s path reflects the flexibility McCarthy brings to healthcare delivery. What began as a planned smaller renovation of an existing facility evolved, in partnership with Citizens Health, into a full replacement hospital scope. The team navigated remote jobsite logistics in western Kansas and USDA funding delays that temporarily paused design progress, maintaining close coordination with the design architect, HFG Architecture, and early engagement of key trade partners throughout the process.

McCarthy self-performed building layout with the VDC team, building controls, rough carpentry, wall protection, shower surround installation, specialties install, and doors and hardware installation. Brought in during design development, the self-perform building controls team partnered with Farris Engineering to deliver a Niagara-based building automation system tailored to the hospital’s specific needs. During concrete placement, the VDC team also used laser slab scanning to verify flatness and confirm the main slab met required tolerances.

Beyond the jobsite, the project team gave back to the Colby community, including distributing hard hats to local families, building a wheelchair ramp for a local child and assembling a custom bunk bed for a child with a respirator.

The project team completed the work with zero recordable injuries across more than 398,000 total work hours, including 85,000 hours self-performed by McCarthy. This project reflects McCarthy's role as a community builder, delivering a healthcare facility that expands access to high-quality care and keeps it close to home, supporting a long-term vision shaped by the community and designed to serve families for generations.