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Description

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Whidbey General Hospital is committed to improving healthcare for the Whidbey Island community We are a notforprofit Medicare certified Public District Hospital incorporated under the laws of the State of Washington

The main hospital campus opened in March of 1970 and has since expanded to include the Whidbey Family Birthplace the Medical Ambulatory Care and Oncology Clinic and our satellite campuses on both the North and South end of the island Two rural health clinics also located both north and south provide affordable quality healthcare to the islands under or uninsured population All of our many facilities are owned and operated by the Whidbey Island Public Hospital District an organization supported by your tax dollars

Our objective has always been to provide excellent patientcentered care at the lowest feasible cost to our community To this end we actively participate in local state and national quality initiatives to uphold our standards of healthcare excellence We also strive to be good stewards of your tax dollars reinvesting in new services and technologies

Our Values
Quality
We believe in continuously seeking better and innovative ways to meet the needs and expectations of our patients each other and the people organizations and communities we serve We make the quality of our services and programs our first priority and strive to eliminate barriers to efficient and cost effective operations

Care For The Whole Person
We believe that the care provided to our patients and their families integrates their physical emotional spiritual and social needs We facilitate and promote the concept of selfdetermination for patients and families as they plan for their care and service

Service
We promote continuity and coordination of care working constantly to deliver effective and efficient services to anyone without discrimination

Compassion
We believe those who serve in our organization reflect a tradition of gentleness and empathy for all patients their families coworkers and others

Integrity and Respect
We are committed to the highest levels of ethical and professional conduct We believe our relationships with patients and families with each other as caregivers with other partners in health care and with our community should be steadfastly open honest and just We believe each person is worthy of love and respect and shares the responsibility to safeguard personal dignity

Staff Commitment and Teamwork
We believe our mission is enhanced by employees staff members and volunteers who are competent and dedicated to providing healthcare services The organization encourages continuing education staff development and teamwork We believe in the value of the work group and its accomplishments as a team

Community Needs and Stewardship of Resources
We provide leadership and accept responsibility to be an active participant in our community promoting health care and seeking to meet community needs We believe the public has placed our organization in a position of trust and we all share the responsibility to be good stewards of the resources entrusted to us

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History

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A Common Need

A History of Medical Care on Whidbey Island

As part of our 30th anniversary celebration our Board of Commissioners contracted with a local historian Theresa Trebon to write a book about the history of health care on Whidbey Island and the history of Whidbey General Hospital

quotA Common Needquot
can be purchased for 2300 from Trish Rose in Community Relations 6787656 ext 3350 or 3217656 ext 3350 The book is also available in the hospital Gift Shop

Chapter One quotThe Greatest of Human Blessingsquot
Going West Those who undertook that perilous journey in the 1850s hoped that the opportunity at trails end outweighed the risks inherent in the crossing Many who came to Oregon Territory did so because of the Donation Land Claim Act The 1850 congressional legislation guaranteed individuals three hundred and twenty acres of Oregon land or six hundred and forty if they were married provided they stay on the property and cultivated it for four years The chance to obtain free land brought Whidbey Island its first permanent white settlers beginning with Isaac Ebey of Missouri Just two weeks after the law was passed Ebey carved out his claim from some of Whidbeys richest land a flat fertile prairie with an incomparable saltwater landing in the center of the island

But while free land was a potent lure another more compelling reason drew settlers west the notion of a healthier place to live First explorers and then settlers promoted the image of a quothale and hearty Westquot in their letters to family and friends located primarily in the Midwest They urged loved ones to follow them to this land of physical beneficence of milder winters and summers But nothing gave a more legitimate stamp to the impression of a quothealthierquot land than the newspapers that sprang up in the wake of white settlement By 1852 the hamlet of Olympia had the Columbian to spout the regions charms and health led its list of local attributes

The Columbian November 6 1852
quotWe live not only in a healthy atmosphere free from all contagion or local diseases but in a sort of natural self acting hospital in which those who may seek a home in it albeit bringing infection with them from abroad will be speedily restored to renewed animation life and vigorquot

The notion of a quotselfactingquot hospital appealed to many particularly the Ebey family of Adair County Missouri Isaac was the first to come west In 1848 he headed for California leaving behind his wife Rebecca their two sons his parents Jacob and Sarah Ebey and his siblings Sarah Ebey could offer ample testimony to the toll extracted by sickness and unhealthy conditions Between 1816 and 1831 she gave birth to twelve children six of whom were dead by the time Isaac departed for California In 1849 she lost her twentyyear old son to tuberculosis and two years later the same disease took her daughter as well The death of Sarah Ebey Turner age twentysix proved the impetus for her parents and remaining siblings to head for the Puget Sound country When they embarked on the Oregon Trail Jacob and Sarah Ebey were both in their latefifties an age considered quotoldquot by the standard of the midnineteenth century Their willingness to undertake such a journey near the end of their lives speaks to the Ebey familys determination to live in a quothealthierquot place It was a determination which permeated the following letter from Winfield Ebey to his brother Isaac in Washington one in which he informs Isaac of their sisters death from tuberculosis

July 9 1851
quotMy Dear Brother
It is with sad heart that I inform you of our very heavy and heartrending misfortune Our beloved and affectionate sister Sarah is no more She departed this life for immortal happiness last Sunday morning at 400After her violent attack of hemorrhage last spring she got able to return to Winchester where they live and appeared to be getting better for some time But she was taken in a short time with a violent bronchitis of the lung which brought her to the verge of the gravequot

quotIt is still my determination to go to Oregon next spring if possible It is evident to me that this country is not suitable for our family I have witnessed the deaths of our family until my heart has grown sick with this place I believe that the disease of our brother and sister is more powerful in Missouri than almost any other place owing the many sudden changes of the climate from very warm to the most intense cold in a short timequot

But while the West offered promises of health one had to get there first and the going was not easy The trip bore little resemblance to the quotWagon Trainsquot presented in twentieth century entertainment Accidents joined with unsanitary conditions poor water and inadequate medical care to take the lives of many who embarked on the Oregon Trail In 1851 as his wife and sons prepared to join that years quotemigrationquot Isaac Ebey wrote Rebecca a twelve page letter advising her on what lay ahead After telling what provisions to bring and when to start Isaac concluded his letter with the following admonitions which he underlined twice his way of impressing upon his family the enormity of what lay ahead

June 8 1851
quotDrive every day never camp two nights on the same ground avoid old camp grounds or where others have camped as much as possible in this way many contagious diseases are avoidedquot

If emigrants thought the trails danger had been exaggerated the countless graves bordering the route quickly made them believers Cholera was one of the fiercest killers a result of drinking water becoming infected with bacteria Although no one understood exactly how the disease infiltrated wagon trains Isaac Ebey was right to warn his wife to avoid quotold camp groundsquot where human and animal waste tainted water supplies His warnings paid off Rebecca and her sons made it to Oregon without incident Others heading to Whidbey were not so fortunate The year after Rebecca left her mother Harriet set out on the trail to join her accompanied by Rebeccas two brothers En route she died of some mysterious illness and was buried quoton the plainsquot