The Nurse's Ball became an annual event on "General Hospital," and its first run went from 1994 to 2001. Every year, barring one, something would inevitably happen — whether by accident or design — to cause Lucy Coe to end up in her underwear in front of the audience. Lucy emceed each event, and the Ball had several benefactors over the decades, including Damian Smith (Leigh McCloskey), Katherine Bell (Mary Beth Evans), Jasper Jacks (Ingo Rademacher), Stefan Cassadine (Stephen Nichols), and wealthy socialite Amanda Barrington (Anne Jeffreys). In 1994, Stone Cates and Robin Scorpio performed the death scene from "Romeo and Juliet." Stone would later die from AIDS in 1995.

In 1996, mafia don Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) donated millions to General Hospital to create the Stone Cates Memorial AIDS wing in honor of his fallen friend. After Mac Scorpio (John J. York) gave Robin Scorpio a quilt to remember Stone by, she announced she was HIV positive, and Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) whisked her off the stage as she started to falter. Some of the stand-out performances from this era included Ned Ashton's (Wally Kurth) band Eddie Maine and the Idle Rich singing "Somewhere over the Rainbow," Alan Quartermaine (Stuart Damon) singing "It's a Grand Night for Singing," and "Ten Minutes Ago" from "Cinderella," and Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) and Felicia Jones (Kristina Wagner) singing "Old Time Rock n' Roll," among dozens of others.