Hillsboro Medical Center

History

History
In 1892 Hillsboros first hospital was located on block 32 in northwest Hillsboro near what is now the entrance to the golf course United Norwegian Church now Our Saviors Lutheran Church under the leadership of Rev Jens Lonne turned a school house into a 36patient hospital for Dr J L O Moeller who came from Norway The building cost 9000 It employed five nurses and had cows sufficient to supply milk It was one of the most complete and modern hospitals in the West Unfortunately records dont show what happened to this building

The next hospital was privately owned by Dr A G Anderson and consisted of rooms above the Hillsboro Banner office when the Banner was located where Dakota Heritage Bank now stands on West Caledonia Avenue

Dr S Vinje had a private onebed hospital in conjunction with his office over Lien Drug Store now Hillsboro Drug Anna Johnson his nurse lived there A number of residents tell of being in that hospital

LeeAnn Fankhanel was born in Dr Vinjes hospital on April 3 1950 The cost of her birth was 9500 after a five dollar discount for cash Dr Vinje was 80 years old at that time

In May 1946 a group of seven L D Best R W Johnston R G Bovaird Rev R T Schuricht Nestor Lemm Chauncey T Kaldor and Chas H Shafer formed a corporation and called it Community Hospital Association They remodeled space above the old bank and Johnson Stores and opened the hospital for patient reception on January 5 1947 The entrance was on Caledonia Avenue and patients had to go up numerous steps to the second floor Stories are told about patients being carried up those steps by diners from Sorums Cafe across the street Facilities at the hospital included two fourbed wards one of which was a maternity ward a combination deliverysurgery room two twobed wards and two threebed wards There were only four fulltime nurses at the time and the greatest difficulty was hiring parttime nurses and relief nurses to assist the permanent staff An appeal was made to the community for help The bylaws governing the operation and policies of the hospital were adopted on December 17 1946 and with a few minor changes still direct the Hospital Association now Hillsboro Medical Center at the present time

During its first year Community Hospital Association served 246 patients and 40 babies made their debut Numerous surgery cases ranging from simple tonsillectomies to major ruptured peptic ulcer operations were performed Physicians using the facility included Drs Cable Vinje LaFluer Erickson and Little Through the years the hospital dealt with problems of finance and personnel not unlike today

The present hospital building was started in the fall of 1950 and opened November 3 1953 The cost was 80000 with much of its work done by volunteers An additional 10000 was needed to equip the hospital It was built entirely on donations with no government monies involved The Hillsboro Park District and the Solomon Comstock family donated the land on which the hospital now stands It had 14 double rooms seven nurses and one physician Bob and Helen Kuhle along with other staff members were instrumental in packing and moving supplies to the new hospital Ron Mehl remembered being handed the medication supply and told to keep it in safekeeping during the transition

The first babies born in the new hospital were the Larson twins Paulette Joy and Pamela Joy on Sunday November 1 1953 Esther Larson went into labor before the hospital was ready and waited at Dr McLeans home for the doors to open It cost the Larsons 9 per day for Esthers room Later that month Dr McLean and his wife were the parents of another set of twins Robert and Patrick born at the hospital

There were hospital financial drives every fall to keep it in existence These drives continued into the early 1970s The hospital made its first profit 20757 in 1957 At that time general room rates had increased to 11 while a private room without a stool was 12 and a private room with a stool cost 13 Pediatrics charged 950 per day

Despite the profit there were still problems There were physical problems with the building and grounds that needed to be addressed a section of the furnace boiler was replaced the floor leaked the roof leaked there were heating problems the south end of the building settled five inches there was hail damage and it was overcrowded In 1960 an addition was built on the east side by Alex Vettel and his crew which alleviated some of those problems

In the winter of 195758 the Hospital Auxiliary was formed to assist the hospital in anyway possible Mrs J J Breen was its first president Mrs Vernon Rust secretary Mrs Emmett Gunderson treasurer and Mrs Harold Smith Mrs Manley Johnson and Mrs Morris Thompson membersatlarge

In 1964 a 50bed skilled nursing home was added to the south of the original hospital The combination facilitys name was changed to Community HospitalNursing Home Association of Hillsboro North Dakota The nursing home was licensed as a skilled nursing care facility This stabilized the financial problems Additions to the nursing home were added in 1981 with the Centennial Room and in 19982 with the Sun Room

Ambulance services were added in January of 1969 For the 22 years prior to that time Halverson Wildeman Funeral Home handled ambulance services in Hillsboro Carl Wildeman and Dr R W McLean responded to any medical calls that arose Due to new equipment staffing and administrative requirements that came into being a 24hour ambulance service was started George Christians was named temporary ambulance coordinator and George Burck was the training officer The initial 71hour first aid course was taught by both Dr R W McLean and Dr D J Breen The first officers were Jerry Usgaard as president James Allen as secretary and Les Hams was firstyear equipment officer Other charter members were Ron Mehl Ron Rotvold John Nelson Ed Olsen Rev Keith Ferguson Russell Smith Jim Hawkins Earl Keena Howard Carver Sr Perry Knudsvig Larry Spong Don Anderson and Dennis Buethner

Through the years the Hillsboro Ambulance Service has responded to thousands of ambulance calls and has been assisted by trained community members Today the Hillsboro Medical Center is proud to have a trained paramedic on staff and partnering with the critical access hospital has been designated as a Trauma IV center

In 1986 a consulting firm Jackson amp Associates was hired to set up a foundation for the medical center The Health and Humanities Foundation was chartered on November 10 1986 Its purpose was to start an endowment fund from which only the interest monies would be spent on items needed for the hospitalnursing home Executive directors have been Tom McSparron 19871993 Val Alfson 19931995 Mary Ann Boeddeker 19952001 and Angela Kritzberger 2001present

In the fall of 1994 the foundation was asked to head the public fundraising for a 15 million HMC building project With this project the clinic administered by MeritCare was added to the HMC facility Other parts of the project were a threestall ambulance garage an expanded physical therapy department remodeling of several areas of the hospital including the lab nurses station laundry and maintenancehousekeeping areas and an upgrade of the mechanical systems throughout the existing building Again the community stepped forward and made financial contributions in the amount of more than 450000 that made these improvements possible