Grande Ronde Hospital

Description

About Grande Ronde Hospital
Grande Ronde Hospital is a private notforprofit Critical Access Hospital CAH It is composed of 25 beds the Family Birthing Center Home Care Services covering Home Health and Hospice and a broad range of diagnostic surgical and therapeutic outpatient services

Grande Ronde Hospital is the only hospital in Union County Oregon The county covers 2038 square miles and has a population of more than 25000 residents Grande Ronde Hospital is one of the top employers in northeast Oregon with more than 500 employees

Mission
We will ensure access to high quality costeffective health services in a safe customerfriendly environment for all those in need of our services

Vision
We will be recognized as a premier small and rural health system based on the quality of our clinical services and effective outcomes the competency and compassion of our staff our application of technologies our financial stability and value of services our creative and skillful leadership and our emphasis on community need health promotion patient education and disease prevention

History

History of GRH

The Early Years
In 1907 Drs Richardson Molitor and Bacon incorporated to form the first hospital in Union County The articles of incorporation recorded by the Secretary of States office read in part

quotthe name assumed by said corporation isThe Grande Ronde Hospital
The durationperpetual a general hospital for the treatment therein
of persons and people afflicted with disease and performing
therein surgical operations and treating the samequot

On March 1 1907 the newly elected Board of Directors purchased two acres in the quotGrandys second additionquot for 910 Today this area is the site of the West Birch Manor apartments at the west end of Adams Avenue However the community had to wait to build the hospital on this site The first structure that held the hospital was a rental house at the corner of Third and Penn across from the First Christian Church Records show that the first employees were hired on May 27 1907 and that the first patient entry was on June 6 1907

Construction proceeded at a rapid pace as the new hospital began to take shape in October of 1907 The Observer reported that quotThe hospital is to be modern in its truest sensequot GRH was completed and occupied at its new site on April 8 1908 The local newspaper The Observer reported the following

On May 10 1908 GRH reached a milestone by recording the first birth in the new hospital Genevieve Ruth Hanna Rogers

A mere seven years later in 1914 GRH undertook its first major addition To help finance the addition the Board authorized the sale of what were termed quotGrande Ronde Hospital Ticketsquot The holder of these tickets gave the purchaser a stipulated amount to be used for medical attention medicines surgery and room if needed and board and nursing care at the institution This was the first type of insurance sold in Union and Wallowa counties to help finance GRH

In 1929 GRH expanded for a second time adding on a north wing to house more surgery space La Grande was growing and so was the use of the only hospital in Union and Wallowa counties However this was the last major construction on the facility before relocating Grande Ronde Hospital to its present site

Dr Richardson the last remaining original stockholder and his wife were the sole owners for 30 years until 1949 when they sold the corporation to Dr CL Gilstrap and Stanley Johnsen an anesthetist at the hospital since 1937 During Richardsons tenure in 1939 GRH was officially designated a nonEprofit corporation

The Years From 1962 to Present

In 1962 both Dr Gilstrap and the hospital were in failing health He and Johnsen donated the Grande Ronde Hospital to the Eastern Oregon Community Medical Center Inc which had been formed by the La GrandeUnion County Chamber of Commerc for the sole purpose of keeping the hospital open A decision was made to build a new hospital as the current 55yearold one was in disrepair and was too small to serve the needs of the community It was decided that the only course of action was to build a new facility

The fundraising drive for the new hospital was a combination of federal HillBurton construction funds and community fundraising The 260000 needed to match the federal government funding was reached midcampaign thanks to the outpouring of community support from businesses and individuals When the campaign ended 465000 had been pledged and all but three percent was finally collected Two community members Gale Beals and David Baum stood out during this campaign for a new hospital Beals was the fundraising chair of the hospital campaign and worked long hard hours to exceed the original campaign goals Baum was president of the local industrial development group and at the start of the campaign he set his goal to make Grande Ronde Hospital the quotmedical center of Northeast Oregonquot Baum served as the first chairman of the new Grande Ronde Hospital Board and the only one until his death in 1977 During Baums tenure he established the Foundation and Auxiliary and acted as the hospital administrator

The new 39bed GRH opened on January 16 1966 in its present day location There were 70 fulltime employees and 14 physicians on staff with a combined annual payroll of 200000 It was apparent within months that the new hospital could not keep up with the growing medical needs of northeast Oregon Within two years the Alex McKenzie Memorial Wing was built to bring the bed total to 49 La Grandes St Joseph Hospital was built in 1938 but closed in 1971 which created a space shortage for patients in Union County The Grande Ronde Hospital hired all of St Josephs employees who wanted a job and converted private rooms to double rooms to make 65 beds

From 1970 to 1977 hospital admissions doubled surgeries quadrupled and emergency department visits jumped 32fold The number of physicians also increased dramatically The growth from 17 in 1970 to 30 physicians in 1977 was a result of the hospital recruiting young doctors many of them specialists to Union County

GRH has continued to grow and expand to meet the communitys health care needs Intensive and cardiac care units physical therapy nuclear medicine new surgery suites and business offices were added pharmacy and laboratory areas were renovated and emergency and radiology departments expanded These represent just a a few of the changes in the 1978 David Baum memorial wing project which added a twolevel 2600squarefoot addition to the hospital

GRH continued to grow A new addition in 1982 provided 12 additional beds and comprised the second floor wing The floor included the muchneeded room for an expanding MedicalSurgical service and a modern Critical Care Unit The floor continues today to provide the modern care necessary for the people of Union County and the adjoining Wallowa and Baker counties

In 1992 GRH went through another major remodeling project and added a third floor This addition houses the Family Birthing Center a csection surgical suite and Community Health Education classrooms Presently the hospital is in the construction phase of expanding the Emergency Services Department adding onto the Admitting area and remodeling the AdmittingRadiology Waiting area

Since 1907 GRH has been a vibrant and essential part of Union County Today there more than over 400 fulltime and parttime employees with an annual payroll of more than 10000000 GRH is a 25bed Critical Access Hospital There are 41 physicians on the active medical staff represent 16 different medical and surgical specialties The hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission is a member of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Healthcare Systems OAHHS and is a member of the American Hospital Association AHA