Magic Valley Reg Medical Ctr

Description

Our Mission Visionand Values
For more than a century St Lukes has carried on the work first envisioned by Bishop Funsten Our original purpose has remained and our heritage and values direct our course as we continue to meet the areas rapidly growing needs Our mission To improve the health of people in our region is the foundation upon which we have built Idahos largest and most advanced health care organization

In keeping with our notforprofit mission St Lukes maintains an opendoor policy which means we care for all patients regardless of their ability to pay Thousands of people with no or inadequate health care coverage receive free services each year at St Lukes

Additionally St Lukes endeavors to provide costeffective convenient access to health care for the underinsured Medicaid and Medicare populations Our efforts are supported by generous gifts from area benefactors whose donations help assure both the availability and the advancement of health care for our region To find out how you can help contact St Lukes Magic Valley Health Foundation

St Lukes Health System Mission

To improve the health of people in our region

St Lukes Health System Vision
St Lukes Health System will transform health care by aligning with physicians and other providers to deliver integrated seamless and patientcentered quality care across all St Lukes settings

StLukes Health System Values
Integrity
Compassion
Accountability
Respect
Excellence

St Lukes Magic Valley Vision
Within St Lukes Health System each hospital is unique with its own distinct vision created and inspired by those who best understand the communities they serve At St Lukes Magic Valley our vision is

History

The History of St Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center

Coming of age
Although the years between 1918 and 2003 are a small portion of human history the distance between those two years in medical treatment and health care technologies is immense Cataclysms of change have rocked the health sciences along with the rest of American society during those eight decades

It is difficult to imagine the primitive plumbing the sod floors and the horsedrawn transportation that most folks relied on early in this century And it is almost impossible to comprehend how infections were treated before antibiotics and surgeries performed without modern anesthetics Bloodletting and the purging of liquids from the body to the point of dangerous dehydration were still common practices back then and even the importance of washing hands between patients was not yet recognized

In 1918 the quotwar to end all warsquot was grinding down to an exhausted armistice A worldwide influenza epidemic that would eventually kill 22 million people was spreading Woodrow Wilson was president and the US population topped 100 million

Twin Falls only 13 years past its founding date was bustling with new construction and a growing population

The census of 1910 recorded 13543 residents in Twin Falls County by 1920 the population more than doubled to 28398 the difference made up largely of homesteaders lured by new irrigation projects

Against this backdrop the Twin Falls County Hospital was created The first publiclyowned hospital in the area it not only grew to meet the needs of its constituency but it would come to reflect the openness selfreliance and conservatism of the general population While other small county hospitals would open and close in other areas of the nation this one would endure the hard times adapt to change and thrive

As Twin Falls County grew the need for public services utilities and medical care followed A typhoid epidemic caused by tainted drinking water broke out among settlers in Rock Creek Canyon in 1905 A few physicians took patients into their homes as was common in that day but typhoid patients required 24hour care and longterm convalescence A makeshift hospital was set up in a saloon on Second Avenue South in Twin Falls and two nurses were hired to care for the afflicted but the motivation was already in place for construction of a formal hospital

Private Limitations Public Benefits
Prior to World War I hospitals were not the institutions of primary and specialized medical treatment that they are today Anyone with sufficient financial resources was doctored and nursed at home Hospitals were for the indigent or the terminally ill like county farms and county homes they admitted far more wards than they discharged

The opening of the Twin Falls County Hospital coincided with the end of the war and changes in the publics perception of hospitals An unexpected byproduct of the war was much improved medical care Lessons learned in field hospitals along the front lines were taken to heart back at home New technologies like xray machines clinical laboratories and antiseptic surgery were saving lives but few private physicians could afford the expense or the space to accommodate them Hospitals became the repositories and primary staging ground for this new era in medicine

Many early attempts were made to construct and maintain a private hospital in Twin Falls County All were handicapped by the areas relatively sparse population and moderate income

Dr Truman Boyd operated shortlived hospitals on Second Street a few blocks from the saloonhospital and in the Boyd Building on Main Avenue in 1905 and later took controlling interest in the 65room Twin Falls Hospital which was constructed in 1906 with public contributions

The Twin Falls Hospital which became known as quotBoyd Hospitalquot survived until Dr Boyd retired in 1921 and sold the facility to the Catholic Sisters of St Joseph The religious order operated the facility as LaMerced Hospital for less than a year before it failed and was converted into the Park Hotel

Other attempts at private hospital care were opened in homes on 4th Avenue East in 1909 9th Avenue East in 1910 and 3rd Avenue North in 1914 None lasted much more than a year The Physicians and Surgeons Hospital founded by a Dr John Morgan opened with 16 beds and two fulltime nurses in 1914 but by 1918 it too was in trouble

Although there was opposition to the idea of a public hospital in Twin Falls County most notably from Dr Boyd and the Boyd Hospital by 1915 the need for one was fairly clear Private hospitals were not stable enough to provide reliable health care for the growing community and a county facility was needed to care for its indigents Rural doctors would benefit certainly by having a central location to board and treat their most serious patients The public would benefit as well from better overall care and the lower costs of nonprofit hospitalizations

In a 1916 resolution declaring a quotpublic necessityquot for construction of the hospital and calling for bids the Twin Falls County Commissioners EO Carlson TE Moore DP Albee made these findings

quotTwin Falls County is without adequate means in caring for the indigent sick and otherwise unfortunate and owing to the temporary arrangements of the present and past there is a present necessity for a permanent arrangement for the care of such sick and unfortunate and A great public benefit would be derived by the erection of a County Hospitalquot

By 1917 the Commissioners had levied 29574 for construction of a twostory 36bed hospital on property the county had purchased two years earlier on Addison Avenue West Concerned that it be selfsustaining the commissioners allocated as much space as possible to paying patients while still serving the countys indigents

Scheduled to open July 1 1918 the formal dedication of Twin Falls County Hospital was delayed by a staff revolt The newly hired superintendent of the hospital Nancy Shaw had a disagreement with the hospital janitor that led to a walkout of all 16 employees

The hospitals sixmember Board of Trustees endured a tumultuous first year It demanded the resignation of Ms Shaw hired a temporary superintendent rehired the walkouts appointed a new superintendent and then watched her resign a few months later after several physicians accused her of being quottactless and discourteousquot

The hospital meanwhile had quickly filled to capacity and was losing money Most of the rooms were being used by nurses and county wards instead of paying patients And so no sooner had the Twin Falls County Hospital opened than plans were being drafted for an addition A nurses home constructed immediately to the west of the hospital opened in 1920

With most nurses temporarily housed elsewhere the hospital began to turn a profit By the end of the first year a total of 689 patients had been admitted including 131 during an influenza epidemic that killed 14 patients There were 39 births in the hospital that first year and 37 deaths Receipts exceeded expenses by 185850

A Place Apart
Despite its proximity to the Twin Falls city center the Twin Falls County Hospital was always a rural hospital serving as many or more folks from outlying farms and ranches as it did patients from town And not only was it rural but it was remote Its nearest neighboring hospitals in Burley Hailey and Wendell all had 30 beds or less and one had to travel hundreds of miles to Salt Lake City Spokane or Portland to find a true metropolitan hospital with a full contingent of specialists

On average rural folk use hospitals half as often as city dwellers Consequently Twin Falls County Hospital was conservatively designed to care for just 36 patients Some questioned whether it needed that many but within months of opening it was often full and by the 1940s more than 80 patients were being squeezed into wards hallways and corridors What the planners did not count on was the growth of population in the Magic Valley and how central this hospital would become both geographically and medically to residents of the region

The changes were incremental but steady In 1927 the Twin Falls County Hospital admitted 1350 patients and its maternity ward saw 151 births Just two years later admissions had increased 17 percent and the number of births was up 20 percent The physical size of the hospital meanwhile remained the same


Because southern Idaho was quotoff the beaten pathquot in the medical profession the hospital and its staff had to be more selfreliant and creative in meeting their patients needs During an infectious meningitis epidemic in the late 1920s that required family quarantines three nurses Helen Wolfe Anastacia Wilson and Elizabeth Smith got together in the basement of the hospital and formed the first cooperative public health unit in the county It operated for five years and was later part of the Crippled Childrens Clinic in Idaho


There was always more work than manpower particularly as demands on the hospital increased and the formation of the first Hospital Guild of Twin Falls County Hospital in 1949 was a godsend Committed volunteers both men and women helped hold the overcrowded hospital together until Magic Valley Memorial Hospital was opened in 1952 and have been an integral part of its operation ever since

new hospital was deemed unlikely in the 1940s despite the worsening situation at Twin Falls County Hospital A committee of concerned physicians Drs Wayne Schow William Peterson and Fred Kolouch prepared a damning report in 1943 that revealed an acute need for more beds unhygienic overcrowding in the wards and dangerously limited space for emergency patients

quotIt is impossible to segregate patients according to category of treatment to age or even at times to sexquot the committee reported quotThe pneumonia patient adjacent to the surgical case in the ward is dangerous The small impressionable child along the side of a terminal case is a bad situation The preoperative patient is psychologically upset when adjacent to a dying patient

quotThe indignities and mental trauma heaped on the hall patient are terrible They are improperly exposed while being examined The use of a bed pan or urinal by the hall patient must be an embarrassing experience A grieving family certainly doesnt enjoy an audiencequot

A year later the Twin Falls County Planning Board commissioned a Dr Benjamin Black of Oakland California to make an impartial assessment of the hospital and its options quotThe wards and other rooms for patients are entirely too crowdedquot he told the Board quotI saw children in the same ward and in adjoining beds with adults medical and surgical cases were found on the same floor and perhaps in the same roomsquot


Dr Black also reported inadequate office space for the staff including the superintendents and a lack of storage for supplies and equipment The heating plant was quotbadly designedquot in his opinion and the maternity ward was unprepared for sick babies He told the board that 60 additional beds were needed perhaps in wings built on to the old hospital along with a new powerhouse and physical plant

Considering its options the Hospital Board looked into converting the nurses home to ward space using the county farm to house patients or even erecting a metal Quonset hut not unlike todays potato storage buildings to serve as a ward By 1946 the need for an entirely new facility capable of housing more patients and modern medical equipment was unquestioned and a 125 million bond issue was passed

Together with private donations and a 315029 federal government grant through the HillBurton Act the county commissioners thought they had the funds to construct the new hospital But when bids came in they were short Rather than compromise their vision for the new hospital the commissioners floated another bond in 1950 this time for an additional 300000 and again the voters responded in favor

For the Common Good
The opening of the new hospital now called Magic Valley Memorial Hospital was a gala event A crowd of more than 500 gathered for the formal dedication of the 1875 million brick and glass structure on September 2 1951 Everyone could see that a new era in medicine had begun The building was spacious and brilliantly illuminated rising five stories into the sky Tall windows graced each room with long sheets of natural light that sparkled on the brandnew stainless steel instruments and equipment

RP Parry a prominent Twin Falls attorney and former county planning board chairman used his dedicatory address to mark the moment as the beginning rather than the end of a quest for good medical services in Magic Valley

quotWe have dreamed of this hospital We have worked for it We have overcome obstacles unmeasured We have endured delays unbelievable But finally today here and now it is a concrete definite realityquot Parry stated

The hospitals new name Magic Valley Memorial Hospital was a memorial Parry said quotto all those doctors and nurses who came to this new country of sagebrush and sandstorm and even more importantly stayed to see the task throughquot

The primary architect of the new hospital Alan Fisher described how the building was designed to be as selfsufficient as possible owing to its geographic isolation

quotThe design of and requirements of all direct patient services are perhaps more generous and complete than is often required by a unit of this size All pathological work is performed within The radiographic and Xray therapy department carries a heavy schedule Urological work is carried on here along with a high elective surgical and orthopedic schedule The relative birth rate is high possible due to the apparent economic serenityquot

Fisher who lived in Denver waxed poetic on the magnificence of the Snake River Canyon and the warmth of the community perched on its rim quotThe opening of the hospital will leave wistful memories of many smoky intense session in the ugly old dining room of the building about to be put out to pasturequot he said quotOr there will come warm nostalgic thoughts of less intense moments walking past the Lombardys in the lush bottom of the canyon or sitting there in the canyon under a blossoming apple tree and an April sky contemplating a beautiful Tbone steak with my friendsquot

Fishers friends included a newly created Hospital Board appointed by the County Commissioners in 1946 with greatly expanded authority and responsibilities authorized by the Idaho Legislature The hospital superintendent of that period J Clifford McGilvray described the development in a 1951 article for The Modern Hospital

quotThe same group of citizens who were instrumental in promoting the construction of the new hospital alarmed at the apparent lack of control in the old hospital sponsored a bill for the creation of a hospital board the bill was rapidly passed by the legislature It is one of the most comprehensive laws for the control of hospitals that I have ever seen It states specifically that no member of the medical profession shall be a member of the hospital board and limits board membership to a maximum of 15 who are to be roughly divided in their political affiliations though they must not hold any political office while serving on the board The law states that board members should as far as possible represent the several communities of Twin Falls Countyquot

Whereas the Twin Falls County Hospitals first Board of Trustees was largely an advisory group reporting directly to the County Commissioners the new Hospital Board was given complete authority to manage the hospital and to adopt rules and regulations that would ensure the highest levels of patient care That same authority and responsibility continues to this day

Ironically the early years of the new board mirrored the first few weeks of the advisory board in 1918 As soon as the complexities of opening a new hospital been cleared from its agenda it had to face the thankless task of ousting its superintendent

McGilvray who had enthusiastically guided the construction of the new hospital from 1949 to 1951 was accused of quotdiscrepancies in equipment accountsquot involving one of the suppliers No charges were filed but the superintendents employment was quotterminatedquot and the Hospital Board immediately began a search for his replacement

Proving itself both independent and openminded the Hospital Board of 1952 hired a 48yearold registered nurse from Massachusetts who had been administrator of a county hospital in Ithaca New York for seven years Irene Oliver moved across the continent to Twin Falls immediately took charge of the new Magic Valley Memorial Hospital and stayed in command for 20 years

quotShe was a tough lady and very dynamicquot said Dr Ben Katz Twin Falls pediatrician and former board member quotShe brought a positive and progressive attitude to this hospital

Olivers term as administrator together with the guidance of the Hospital Board set Magic Valley Memorial Hospital on a steady course that maintained it through two decades of dramatic changes In that time a terrifying polio epidemic was quelled lung cancer was first attributed to smoking important new antibiotics were developed the first heart transplants occurred and Medicare was signed into law At Magic Valley Memorial Hospital a pediatrics department was added a coronary care unit with electrocardiograph equipment was established electroencephalograms EEGs were introduced and the hospital became the first in Idaho to be accredited The demand for outpatient services were increasing while the average length of a hospital stay started to fall

Shrewd budgeting and a policy of reinvesting profits allowed Magic Valley Memorial Hospital to modernize and expand its facilities without additional county indebtedness A 480000 remodeling project in 1965 enlarged radiology and laboratory departments An auditorium was constructed air conditioning was introduced nursing classrooms were added and office space was improved

Between 1952 and 1972 the hospitals annual budget grew from 695000 to 38 million average bed occupancy increased from 46 percent to 81 percent private room rates increased from 12 per day to 52 per day average stay dropped from 57 days to 5 days admissions increased from 4513 patients in 1952 to 7159 in 1972 births fell from 1171 babies born in 1952 to just 841 babies born at the hospital in 1972

So great was her influence on Magic Valley Memorial Hospital and the community that when she announced her retirement in 1972 largely due to her failing eyesight Irene Oliver was referred to as quotMrs Hospitalquot by the Twin Falls TimesNews Her departure marked the end of an era of steady growth conservative management and quiet confidence and ushered in a more difficult period for the hospital and the community

In 1974 for the first time in its history the hospital was turned down by the public in its request for a bond issue Although 62 percent of voters approved of the 46 million hospital expansion bond it failed to gain the twothirds majority it needed Another bond was floated just 10 months later but it too failed and by a wider margin

Like the old Twin Falls County Hospital before it Magic Valley Memorial Hospital was facing obsolescence just 25 years after construction Designed with an emphasis on bed patients needing restorative care the facility was struggling to adapt to the health communitys new emphasis on preventative care and the publics demand for more outpatient treatments Fire and safety codes had changed in the interim and so had accreditation standards Fire alarms doors power systems emergency generator and even the electrical wiring of the hospital was no longer up to code

Bruised by its bond defeats the Hospital Board resolved to handle its growth problems without another appeal to voters Instead the hospital would seek ways to finance its own expansion or construct a new facility without relying on taxpayers In 1979 the Board even refused the hospitals portion of county mill levy which the hospital had been receiving since 1918 Ever since the hospital has operated without tax dollars from Twin Falls County

Several avenues of expansion were explored during the 1970s including construction of an entirely new hospital an idea which had won the support of many doctors But after scrapping several plans the Board decided in December 1979 that renovation of the existing hospital would be the most cost effective approach

The 267 million expansion project which was essentially a complete remodel of the hospital and the addition of a new threestory wing was financed through a complicated formula made possible by the Idaho Health Facilities Authority a state agency created to help health care institutions with construction projects The 30year bond floated to pay for the upgrade is due to be paid off in 2004

With its new wing and new quarters for surgery emergency room labs ICU CPU and physical therapy as well as facelifts in nearly every department the new hospital was as much unlike Magic Valley Memorial Hospital as it was from Twin Falls County Hospital Noting this and recognizing the regional nature of the hospitals reach the Hospital Board changed the name of its 165bed facility to Magic Valley Medical Center on March 23 1982

Not long afterward in 1986 the hospital faced a test of one of its founding tenets public ownership A proposal was made to transfer ownership of the hospital to a nonprofit corporation to help it survive decreasing patient numbers shorter hospital stays and shrinking federal Medicare reimbursements Put to a vote in December of that year the proposal was defeated by a 60 percent plurality

Since that date the MVMC has continued to grow and expand its services using reserve funds set aside for new construction The Southern Idaho Regional Cancer Center was added onto the hospital in 1989 and a Transitional Care Unit built in 1994 The next year an enhanced Women and Infants Center was constructed

In 1997 the hospital added a Diagnostic Cardiac Catheterization Lab and acquired Canyon View Hospital This was followed by construction of the 56000squarefoot Medical Office Building which opened this spring

Todays hospital may not look much like the one that Twin Falls County built in 1918 and its medical treatments are far beyond what anyone could have dreamed of back then but the foundation of the institution its public ownership its selfreliance and its commitment to serve the public good rather than some private profit has held firm

A New Era
In January 2001 Magic Valley Medical Center and the Twin Falls Clinic and Hospital merged to form one regional health care system to serve residents in South Central Idaho With this partnership we hope to bring to the this region expanded health care services more diverse medical staff and improved patient care