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Description

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Mission Statement
We are your Medical Center striving to exceed your expectations by providing compassionate costeffective quality healthcare to all

Vision Statement
A great local hospital

No reason to go anywhere else

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History

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History
Bay Area Medical Center was created in 1985 but its history dates back to the late 1800s when Marinette and Menominee each had their own hospital

That history is marked by two recurring themes institutions looking to find better ways to meet the healthcare needs of their community and communities demonstrating a strong interest and a willingness to support their hospitals

Marinette
The first qualified surgeon to come to the Twin City area was Dr Horace Mann who founded what was then known as the Menominee River Hospital In 1884 it was renamed the MampM Hospital

The MampM Hospital was located on Mann Street behind
the old Knights of Columbus building The history of the hospital was closely tied with the Boren family In 1886 John Boren became the hospitals superintendent and his wife Anna became the nursing supervisor

The hospital served the lumber camps as far away as Dunbar and Spalding Boren began selling hospital tickets a form of health insurance to the workers A 10 ticket was good for a hospital stay

As early as 1935 the idea of building a Marinette County Hospital was considered However it was not until 1938 when it became apparent that the 57yearold MampM Hospital was likely to close that the Marinette County Board began the process of building a replacement facility Marinette General Hospital opened its doors on September 3 1940 Located at the current BAMC site Marinette General had an 80bed capacity and cost 315000 to build It was said to rival the facilities of any city hospital

The hospital was funded through a Public Works Grant a citizens fundraising effort and county dollars The site which included 52 acres cost the county 1200 The architect was Allan Wallsworth a graduate of Marinette High School

The beds frames and nursery equipment were designed by Dr J W Boren and manufactured at the Lloyd Manufacturing Company in Menominee

In 1966 Marinette General expanded its role in patient care with the addition of a 40bed Extended Care Unit An additional 57 beds were added in February 1972 because the average occupancy level was more than 115 percent during the period of 1968 through 1971 This made a grand total of 175 beds available in the facility but by 1975 most of these beds were decertified leaving only 99 medicalsurgical beds

Menominee
Menominee Mich was a leading lumber center of the Midwest in the late 1800s Accidents frequently happened in the lumber camps and there was no hospital or medical facility in the community A Bay Shore Hospital Association was organized in 1889 Its members contacted the Sisters of the Third Order of St Francis who had recently established a hospital in Escanaba asking them to assist in providing medical and hospital care for Menominee The association purchased a twostory nineroom hotel in west Menominee The Montreal House which was remodeled and renamed Providence Hospital

The small hospital was always overcrowded and in 1891 a new building was constructed The new St Josephs Hospital was built on the current site of the Menominee facility next to what was then Epiphany Church now Holy Spirit Church on 10th Ave The nuns solicited the lumber camps for money traveling by foot from camp to camp

St Josephs Hospital underwent a number of expansions beginning in 1900 that continued until 1911 including a surgical suite 16 additional beds in the north wing a threestory structure with 16 private rooms a laboratory and xray department a third floor maternity department a chapel and quarters for the Sisters The hospitals bed capacity at that time was 75

When local industrialist Marshall Lloyd died in 1927 he left his fortune to the people of Menominee specifically to be used for the healthcare of the community A new hospital located adjacent to St Josephs Hospital and called the Marshall Lloyd Hospital was dedicated in 1950 The two hospitals were operated by the Sisters of the Third Order of St Francis and shared a variety of services to avoid duplication The hospital was later renamed St JosephsLloyd Hospital to reflect this relationship

The years 1973 and 1974 brought financial problems to the Sisters of the Third Order of St Francis Few physical plant improvements had been made and in 1973 the Order determined that it could not afford to make the necessary upgrades to meet fire and safety codes

In 1973 by mutual agreement the obstetrical unit of St JosephsLloyd was relocated to Marinette General Hospital This move marked the first shared service and the first consolidation discussions between the two hospitals

In 1974 the Order announced that it was divesting its interest in St JosephsLloyd With overwhelming community support the County assumed legal ownership of the renamed Menominee County Lloyd Hospital

In 1976 the people of Menominee County overwhelmingly voted for a bond issue to build a new wing to the Lloyd portion of the hospital That work was completed in 1980

The merger
In 1983 following critical changes in the healthcare industry a study jointly commissioned by the hospitals recommended the consolidation of the two facilities to ensure the continuation of quality healthcare Plans to merge the two hospitals began and community meetings were held to inform the public of the proposed changes

In 1985 the officials from Marinette and Menominee counties signed a 20year lease with Bay Area Medical Center a newly created notforprofit healthcare organization The counties would retain ownership of the two hospital buildings and would lease them to BAMC in exchange for providing care to the medically indigent This marked a first in the merging of hospital facilities across state lines

A consolidation plan went into effect in 1986 combining services at each building including the emergency department being consolidated at the Marinette facility After a lengthy public debate acute care was moved to Marinette with the psychiatric unit moving to Menominee Then in a final step of the consolidation BAMC paid off the Menominee facilitys 35 million debt to Menominee County