95 1924 ~ 2019
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ANNIVERSARY
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Dear Friends, In 1920, community leaders joined together to establish a Methodist hospital in Scottsbluff. They secured cash and pledges of over $100,000 with which they purchased a newly constructed but unfinished hotel at the corner of 18th and Broadway in Scottsbluff. After two years of construction, the new West Nebraska Methodist Episcopal Hospital opened on April 15, 1924 with community-wide fanfare. Seven patients were admitted the first day. From the beginning, it was a “community” hospital, built on determination and through the hard work of citizens throughout western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming who not only the raised the money, but also provided the work force to staff it. Hospital stays were long and medications few, but compassionate care was plentiful. Since then, our name and location have changed along with medical technology, and our staff and services have grown dramatically, yet we continue to provide the same exceptional care upon which we built our reputation. As we celebrate Regional West Medical Center’s 95th anniversary, we are indebted to the providers, staff, and countless others who have been part of the hospital’s proud past. Regional West was built on their commitment to providing the best possible care to all patients, and that commitment is one of the few things that remain unchanged. Thank you for trusting your health care to Regional West Medical Center.
John Mentgen, FACHE President and Chief Executive Officer
Regional West Board of Directors Hod Kosman Chair, Regional West Health Services
Lee Glenn
Jim Trumbull Chair, Regional West Medical Center
Todd Holcomb, EdD
John Mentgen
Michael Ickowski
Matthew Bruner, MD, FACOG
Dennis Miller
Rev. Lauren Ekdahl
Dorisa Polk, MD, FACOG
Carolyn Escamilla
Donald Thomas, MD
Mark Gillam
Sheila Webb-Bowles, MD, FACEP
Dennis Hadden Tom Holyoke
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1924
West Nebraska Methodist Episcopal Hospital was located at 18th and Broadway, Scottsbluff.
Each member of the medical staff was a physician/surgeon who operated on his own patients.
New mothers were hospitalized with complete bed rest for up to two weeks in 1927.
West Nebraska Methodist Episcopal Hospital On April 12, 1924, a huge parade was held in downtown Scottsbluff to celebrate the hospital’s grand opening. Dedication services were held the following day and western Nebraska’s new 20-bed hospital opened on April 15. It was called West Nebraska Methodist Episcopal Hospital. Only two floors of the 20-bed hospital were completed when it opened.
Within months, the hospital opened a nursing school to ensure the availability of well trained staff. And within four years, the rapidly increasing demand for hospital care required the completion of the third floor. The new hospital was welcomed and supported by people throughout the panhandle and eastern Wyoming. The first trustees
included 69 men from 19 towns: 29 men from Scottsbluff; seven from Mitchell; six from Gering; three each from Bayard, Bridgeport, Crawford, and Torrington; two each from Morrill, Rushville, and Atkinson; and one each from Lingle, Henry, Lyman, Gordon, Thedford, Glenn, Ainsworth, Valentine, and Long Pine.
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The West Nebraska Methodist Hospital Nurse Training School provided career training for high school graduates throughout the region, and well trained staff for the hospital.
In 1929, the hospital purchased this house at 21st and Broadway in Scottsbluff for nurses’ quarters. Nursing students lived there until the 1940s when a dormitory in Gering was purchased from the sugar factory.
1920s
1930s
The first patient admitted was from Mitchell and under the care of Dr. C.R. Watson.
The word “Episcopal,” meaning governed by bishops, was dropped from the hospital’s name.
The first baby was born on April 24, 1924.
Fourteen pairs of twins were born at the Scottsbluff hospital between opening day and January 23, 1933.
About 70 percent of the hospital’s patients came from outside of Scottsbluff. They frequently brought their own local physicians to care for them. Board members were intimately involved in day-to-day operations as well as soliciting money, obtaining loans, making repairs as they saw fit, and seeking food donations. The hospital opened a “nurse training school” on October 20, 1924. There was no tuition, but the school day was 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and students were required to attend chapel at 6 a.m.
The Great Depression caused long-term financial problems for the hospital. A letter written in 1932 to a nursing student who was home on vacation asked that the student stay home until notified since the June patient census was down to 19 and could go lower in July. By April 1, 1934, West Nebraska Methodist Hospital had admitted 12,215 patients. Before the advent of plastic disposables, rubber tubing was sterilized by boiling and frequently burned to a crisp. The odor of burnt rubber was not unusual in the hospital.
In 1928, the third floor of the hospital was finished and an elevator was added. The elevator was purchased with a $6,100 gift from Mr. A. Barnett of McCook.
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1920-1950
In the 1940s, nursery care for premature infants included placing the babies in this wooden box which was equipped with a light bulb for heat and a hole for administration of oxygen.
In 1951, Dr. C.N. Sorensen established the School of Radiologic Technology to train technical staff to assist with X-rays.
1940s
1950s
Due to a shortage of staff during World War II, operating room supervisor Mary Lou Brown Williams was on call 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
In 1950, the Hospital Auxiliary was founded by Edythe Emery to provide volunteers to assist the hospital. They were called “the pink ladies” because they wore pink jackets for identification.
During the war, housekeepers were often asked to help with nursing care. The fourth floor was completed in November 1944. After World War II, the region’s first medical specialists established practices in Scottsbluff. They included radiologist C.N. Sorensen, MD; ophthalmologists Lawrence Gridley, MD, and John Rosenau, MD; urologist James Hayhurst, MD; general surgeon J.P. Heinke, MD; and pathologist W.O. Brown, MD. In 1947, the community launched a $200,000 fund-raising campaign to complete the hospital’s fifth and sixth floors and purchase new equipment. In 1949, St. Mary Hospital was built as a gift to the community from the Catholic Sisters of Saint Francis.
Laboratory services expanded under the direction of Dr. W.O. Brown, who added new technology and offered laboratory services to other panhandle communities. The west half of the sixth floor was completed to serve as a polio ward, under the direction of Dr. William Gentry and physical therapist Margaret Tucker. Max Coppom was appointed hospital administrator, succeeding nine administrators in 30 years. In 1954, the hospital’s name was changed to West Nebraska General Hospital. After some 15 years of discussion, the Board of Trustees launched a $1 million fundraising campaign to build a new hospital.
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1960 1960s In 1960, West Nebraska General Hospital (WNGH) had 174 employees, 150 volunteers, and an annual operating budget just over $600,000. Dr. Calvin Oba, the region’s first orthopaedic surgeon, joined the medical staff and ushered in a new era of medical technology and specialization. WNGH was one of the first hospitals in the state to introduce home health care.
The new hospital included classrooms and a dormitory for the school of nursing. The stained glass window in the hospital chapel was designed by French artist Gabriel Loire and imported from Chartres, France. In February 1968, a four-bed coronary care unit was added on third floor. Nuclear medicine program began in 1968.
With the decision to build a new hospital, West Nebraska General Hospital entered a period of growth and modernization in the 1960s. Volunteers launched western Nebraska’s largest ever fundraising campaign − raising over $1 million. The hospital was built on 11 acres of land donated by Roy Rugger. The total cost of the five story building was $4.1 million. The new 112-bed West Nebraska General Hospital opened on May 6, 1967.
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1970
1970s The old hospital, located at 18th and Broadway, was torn down in August 1971. Regional West Foundation was incorporated in 1972. Campus expansion began in 1975 with construction of the original Medical Office building. St. Mary Hospital was purchased by West Nebraska General Hospital on November 30, 1977.
The first CT scan equipment was purchased for $350,000. At the end of the decade, the hospital had over 700 employees. The Southwest Addition, completed in 1979, added a Neonatal/ Intensive/Coronary Care Unit, Emergency Department, Day Surgery/Outpatient Care, Admitting, Respiratory Therapy, and a landmark ramp for ambulance access.
New procedures, advanced medical technology, and physician recruitment began to transform the hospital from a community hospital into a regional referral center. In 1971, the first pacemaker was surgically implanted, the first total hip replacement surgery was performed, and the Renal Dialysis Unit opened. In 1974, the nurses’ dormitory was converted to a graduated care unit. In addition to 27 family physicians, the medical staff included a growing number of medical specialists.
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1980
1980s Max Coppom resigned after 25 years as administrator and president of West Nebraska General Hospital. Charles Marr became president in 1980, and David M. Nitschke was named president in 1987. A 20-bed psychiatric inpatient unit opened through a joint venture with Richard Young Hospital of Omaha.
Inn Touch opened at the “South Unit.� The University of Nebraska Medical Center assumed direction of the School of Nursing. Medical Plaza North was completed in 1989 and 33 physicians opened offices in the building.
The 1980s ushered in a new era in cancer treatment with the installation of a cobalt treatment unit in 1982. By 1987 it was replaced with the first linear accelerator. In 1985, the $10.5 million Med Center 2000 was completed. The project included construction of the west tower, a new Medical/Surgical patient unit, a new kitchen and cafeteria, and relocation and expansion of Radiology and Surgery. In 1988, the hospital changed its name to Regional West Medical Center.
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1990
1990s The Cardiac Catheterization Lab opened. In 1991, the substance abuse treatment program and the psychiatric unit were combined to become The Behavioral Health Center. Regional Care, Inc. (RCI) incorporated as the hospital’s own third-party health plan administrator.
The Regional Communications Network, a project of the Regional West Foundation, was developed to link all panhandle hospitals and emergency medical services. In 1996, Regional West Medical Center was verified as the state’s second Level II Trauma center by the American College of Surgeons.
By the 1990s, almost all hospital departments were utilizing computer systems, but paper charts remained in use for patient records. In 1991, The Village at Regional West retirement community opened. In 1997, the hospital purchased Western Pathology Consultants and converted the Pathology Department to the Laboratory Services Department. In 1999, Medical Plaza South opened along with the Rehab Center, Cancer Treatment Center, Breast Health Center, outpatient pharmacy, clinics for the newly developed Horizons West Medical Group, and more.
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2000s
·S idney Cancer Treatment Center gets linear accelerator.
· New main entrance opens · Cardiac Catheterization Lab opens
·B irth & Infant Care Center with region’s only NICU opens
·R egional West Physicians Clinic founded
·O n-site PET scanning introduced
·O nline patient charting begins
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·R egional West named Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by ASBS
·V olunteer Services adopts new name: “Volunteers & Friends of Regional West”
·A cute Rehab Unit opens
· Tele-health technology begins
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·A cute Rehab Unit receives first CARF accreditation ·N ew Emergency Department opens
·D iabetes Care Center opens
· T odd S. Sorensen, MD, MS, named president
· Valet service begins
·B ehavioral Health Unit moves from St. Mary Hospital (South Unit) to 5th Floor
· Progressive Care Unit opens
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·M edical Center of the Rockies opens ·S cottsbluff Surgery Center opens
·E mergency Medicine Residency program begins
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· Hospitalist service begins · Interventional Radiology suite opens · “South Unit” renamed “St. Mary Plaza”
·F irst drive-through flu clinic
·C .B. and Lucille K. Dorwart Cancer Care Center opens at Sidney
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· Newly renovated St. Mary Plaza opens
·H ome care expands to 19 counties ·N ew Cardiac Catheterization Lab opens ·3 D tomography introduced ·N ew Critical Care Unit under construction
·R egional West Foundation unveils Tranquility Garden ·5 -Ton MRI magnet installed
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·R egional West celebrates 95th Anniversary
·C linical staff adopt designated color uniforms
· Avenue B is relocated
·R egional West Education Center opens
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· Newly renovated Neonatal Intensive Care Unit opens
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·C ancer Treatment Center adds patient navigator
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· I npatient Dialysis Unit opens · I nfusion Center opens ·R egional West Emergency Medical Services expand to panhandle communities
· Breast Health Center introduces digital mammography
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·U niversity of Colorado Health Cancer Partnership begins
· Air Link unveils Bell407GX helicopter
·Y MCA at Regional West opens
· Garden County Health Services affiliates with Regional West
·A ir Link adds fixed wing air ambulance
· John Mentgen named president and CEO
·S idney and Chappell Family Medicine Clinics open
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Regional West 4021 Avenue B Scottsbluff, NE 69361 303.635.3711 RWHS.org
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