San Antonio Community Hospital

Description

Our Hospital
San Antonio Community Hospital brings together all that modern medicine has to offer technology teamwork expertise and caring

From its humble beginnings in 1907 San Antonio Community Hospital has become a healthcare leader in the rapidly expanding Inland Empire of Southern California Today more than 2000 professional technical and support personnel make their career with us Joined by many of the regions leading physicians who comprise the 500member medical staff this team of skilled and compassionate individuals have earned us an exceptional reputation of quality patient care

With 279 beds San Antonio Community Hospital is a premier acute care facility that provides a comprehensive range of medical services

Mission
Our mission is to improve the overall health of our regional community by offering healthcare services that both comfort and cure in settings that inspire confidence and in a manner that earns the trust of our patients our physicians and our employees

Vision
Our vision is to use our strengths to enhance our reputation for excellence in quality care patient experience and an exceptional working and practice environment

Values
Safety
We make safety our highest priority for our patients employees physicians and visitors

Integrity
We do the right thing ethically legally and morally

Excellence
We hold ourselves to the highest standards of quality

Compassion
We treat everyone with dignity and respect

Accountability
We are accountable for our results and actions

History

History
The first patient was treated at San Antonio Hospital in 1907 At the time Upland was something of an upandcoming community with nearly 1500 residents six churches two banks and several busy merchant establishments The hospital was located at the corner of San Antonio Avenue and Arrow Highway The quaint configuration of that stone building placed the hospitals operating room upstairs in the southwest corner Katherine Weber wife of Uplands pioneer physician Arthur L Weber recalls in her history of the hospital The mens ward was downstairs in the northeast corner so Dr John Craig the strapping young son of the hospitals founder Dr William Craig found himself much in demand both as a surgeon and anesthesiologist and as the only member of the hospital staff who was strong enough to carry a patient from the operating room downstairs to the mens ward

During its first six months of operation from November 1907 through May 1908 the hospital admitted 45 patients and performed 17 operations There were no births In 1916 The Upland News reported that the hospital had treated 290 patients delivered 38 babies and performed 152 surgeries during the previous year At the same time the hospital shareholders were already discussing building an addition to the hospital The room rates were 25 per week for a small room all other rooms were 27 per week The operating room fee was 15 First year wages for a student nurse enrolled in the hospitals training school were 150 per month

San Antonio dietary staff served patients their meals on fine china with sterling flatware Linen napkins in silver napkin rings and fresh flowers graced every tray Wine was available for lunch and dinner roseacute burgundy and white This tradition continued even through the 1970s The sterling silver is gone now but meals are still served on real china with fresh flowers on every tray

By 1938 the room charge was 625 per day and the operating room fee had risen to 20 The fee for anesthesia was 16 The maternity ward was still a bargain Mrs Weber recalls that the cost of a tenday stay the standard for the 1920s and 1930s was 60 and a new mother was confined to bed for the entire stay forbidden to rise even to use the bathroom The national average for todays maternity stay is two days and hospital charges are more than 8000

Building costs have followed a similar stunning trajectory In 1941 the West Pavilion was added at a cost of 350 per square foot The cost of the proposed new emergency department patient tower and renovated lobby and gift shop that are planned to take the hospital into its next decade were estimated in 2006 to be between 500 and 700 per square foot Even more incredibly a common financial guide in healthcare planning estimates a perpatient bed cost of 145 million

The growth San Antonio Community Hospital has experienced in its 100plus year history has been transformational In 2006 the hospital treated 14750 inpatients and 138000 outpatients Nearly 62000 people received treatment in the hospitals emergency department The medicine practiced in 1907 by the hospitals team of dedicated physicians and nurses would seem rudimentary by modern standards

Today the hospitals services and techniques are at the leading edge of medical science in ways that the hospitals forebears could not have imagined much less dared to wish for Still over time two constants have steered San Antonios evolution from a modest local hospital to a multifacility billiondollarayear regional healthcare operation

One is its unwavering commitment to community quality caring and integrity The second is its people an intangible but undeniable spirit instilled in the hospitals employees and medical staff Longtenured employment is the norm at San Antonio And if you ask people why they stay an almost circular logic applies They will tell you they stay because of the people