Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium has opened the Bill and Berniece Grewcock Animal Hospital, a 32,000 square-foot facility replacing a hospital that had been in service for 30 years.
The zoo cares for more than 39,000 animals. Patients were already being treated in the new building when the zoo announced the opening in January 2026, with full move-in starting in early February.
What is inside
The hospital puts quarantine and hospitalization areas, intensive care wards and an animal diet kitchen under one roof. A fully equipped pharmacy and an in-house clinical pathology laboratory let the staff run tests and get results in real time. Two treatment rooms and a sterile surgical suite handle everything from routine procedures to complex cases.
The largest single addition is the zoo’s first CT scanner, which gives the animal health team a view inside a patient that often removes the need for more invasive diagnostics. Integrated video monitoring lets staff watch patients continuously without disturbing them.
The zoo says treatment spaces were laid out so veterinarians, technicians and animal caretakers can work together without moving animals across the building.
Training the next set of zoo vets
With the hospital open, the zoo has joined a zoological medicine residency program through the American College of Zoological Medicine. It is one of 32 institutions nationwide in that program.
More than 10,000 donors contributed to the project.
