The Butler Health System is more than the hospital at 911 E. Brady Street.

It owns and operates four Butler Medical Associates physician practices, and it runs three specialty practices.

For the past several years it has been expanding services throughout Butler County with its outpatient services offices.

These added services and locations show the investment the hospital continues to make in the community. They show a hospital can be a significant part of a community's economy.

First there is the direct benefit of jobs. While many other industries are cutting back, health care continues to grow. The aging of the baby boomers is making health care a growth industry.

Butler Health System employs almost 1,700 people, an increase of more than 300 in recent years, making it one of the largest employers in the county.

A recent economic impact study shows that another 1,876 jobs exist in the county because of the hospital. They are jobs that are here because the hospital buys goods and services from the companies that employee these people, according to a hospital news release.

As the dollars the hospital spends trickle through the economy, they create more and more of an impact. Consider that in fiscal 2005 the health system had a payroll of $59.3 million dollars.

In addition to the hospital campus, the health system owns and operates four physician practices in Butler, Chicora, Sarver and Zelienople. It also runs three specialty practices — a surgeon in Butler, an endocrinology practice in Lyndora and a new obstetrics/gynecology practice on Fifth Street in Butler.

With 11 walk-in lab and X-ray facilities across the county and three outpatient physical therapy offices, there is a Butler Health System facility in almost every section of the county.

Each of the outpatient services of BMH locations supports the neighborhoods where they are and the addition of each site fuels the economy first with construction/renovation expenditure and then new jobs.

A small example of the investment by the hospital in these communities is just the start-up costs to open a new location.

According to recent financial data, if there is no construction costs involved, it costs $50,000 to $60,000 to open a lab and X-ray facility. If construction costs are involved, it takes an additional $100,000 to make a site operational, according to a hospital news release.

Here is the list of locations and the dates they opened:

Butler Commons — The lab and X-ray opened in September 1996 and MRI was added in November 2002

Cypher Professional Building — The lab started in June 1996 and mammography screening was added in October 1998

Chicora — The lab and X-ray started in February

, and mammography is coming this spring

East Brady — The lab and X-ray started in December 1999, and mammography started in 2003

East Jefferson Street — The lab and X-ray started in January 2000, and outpatient physical therapy is also available

Mars — The lab and X-ray started in March 2005, and mammography started in 2005

Petrolia — The lab and X-ray started in January 2001

Sarver — The lab and X-ray started in June 2005, and mammography started in 2005

Saxonburg — The lab and X-ray started in August 1999, and mammography started in 2003

Slippery Rock — The lab, X-ray and mammography started in February 1998

Zelienople — The lab and X-ray started in August 1999. It moved to a new BMA office in January 2004. Mammography was added in 2003.These outpatient facilities and the outpatient volume at the hospital account for 400,000 visits annually. There are also 14,000 inpatient visits per year at the East Brady Street campus.Even the government benefits from a hospital. Even though Butler Memorial is a nonprofit, independent hospital and is tax exempt, it does generate revenue for the county and the state through taxes paid by employees and physicians and other revenues it generates.The health system generates more than $125,000 in indirect government revenue for Butler County and almost $31 million in indirect revenue for the state, according to a hospital news release.Also, last year the health system spent $2.4 million dollars in unreimbursed care for critical services such as Family Services of BMH, education, emergency care and drug and alcohol rehabilitation support.