Inside the medical industry moves making the Tri Cities boom

On a blustery November day in Grand Island, construction crews are hard at work on a new three-story medical office building. When completed, the 66,000-square-foot building will house additional offices for Bryan Health and the expanded Grand Island Health Center, operated by Nebraska Medicine.

On the south side of Kearney, 40 miles to the west, there’s a similar scene. Construction sites abound on previously undeveloped land, next to brand new hospitality, entertainment and medical facilities. The Kearney Cancer Center, which officially opened its doors to the public last week, is among them. The facility is a joint venture between Bryan Health’s Kearney Regional Medical Center and Cancer Partners of Nebraska. Justin Burr, a radiation oncologist at the center, said it offers an image vitality center for early cancer detection, infusion bays for chemotherapy and a linear accelerator to treat tumors.

“What we have here is top of the line, and it really does rival what's available in Lincoln and Omaha,” he said.

But it’s not the only new cancer center in the city, let alone the region. Just over a mile away, the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center’s Kearney location opened less than a year ago, offering traditional cancer treatments and comfort care.

“A lot of people decided to grow in those areas, kind of at the same time, and because some of that building takes a while to do,” said Kyle Skiermont, the chief Operating officer for Nebraska Medicine. “It seems like now all of a sudden there's kind of a boom, if you will.”

That boom means more patients getting care closer to home. But it also means recruiting new practitioners and staff to work in central Nebraska. For Burr, who grew up in nearby Kenesaw, it didn’t mean going far.

“As a local kid, that was always my dream to come home and really create an excellent cancer care program,” he said. “It's something I've been passionate about ever since my training has started.”

Burr said most of the new hires for the facility came from the Kearney area. But for Dr. Swetha Yadav, a medical oncologist at the Kearney Cancer Center, coming to Nebraska meant traveling thousands of miles. Yadav went to medical school in India, did fellowship training in Alabama and was practicing in Texas before moving to the area in October.

“It's a close-knit community, and so I did realize that with cancer care, you want to have a good communication with the family,” she said. “Care can be more personalized here as compared to taking care of a patient in the bigger hospital systems.”

Local colleges are also playing a role in preparing a workforce for the region’s new facilities.

Four years ago, Bryan Health began a partnership with Hastings College to bring nursing education to students in the Tri Cities. The program’s first graduating class will be in May. The University of Nebraska Medical Center is also expanding its offerings in Kearney through the new Rural Health Education Complex. A $95 million Health Science Education Center is expected to open in early 2026, doubling the number of health care students in the program. Skiermont said the expansion of education opportunities and residencies in greater Nebraska will also expand the region’s workforce.

“If they've had the opportunity to kind of work and train in one of those facilities, [it’s a] much, much higher likelihood that they may stay in those communities or move to those communities because they've experienced what it can be like to practice in those areas,” he said.

The recent medical investments have been a catalyst for other kinds of growth in the Tri Cities.

In Grand Island’s Prairie Commons, the mixed-use development on the west side of town where the new Bryan Health and Nebraska Medicine building is going up, apartment buildings, a hotel and the new corporate headquarters of Chief Industries are also in the construction process.

The drive from I-80 to the Kearney Cancer Center takes you past modern hotels, upscale restaurants, multiple convention centers and the brand new Kearney Sportsplex. A two-story indoor driving range is also on its way up, with its net towering above the other developments.

Trevor Lee, the president of the Development Council for Buffalo County, said Kearney’s role as health care hub of greater Nebraska means more people working in other industries, like hospitality and professional services.

"It's really an economic engine, not only in Kearney, but Buffalo County,” he said. “With that, it's got direct job creation with those new facilities, but also indirect job creation.”

Lee said the growth shows no signs of slowing down.

Back at Kearney Cancer Center, Yadav said she hopes to see even more amenities that are currently available in larger facilities in Lincoln or Omaha come to Kearney.

“In 10 to 20 years, we're hoping that patients don't have to leave the community,” she said. “They can just come here and get state-of-the-art cancer care, from clinical trials to the most advanced treatment options, and they don't have to leave their homes for that.”