By KEVIN TRUDGEON
REDLANDS – When Dr. Ellen Brown Seymour arrived in Redlands in 1881, she was met with dirt streets and a city that was just beginning to blossom.
Cousin to one of Redlands founding fathers, Frank E. Brown, Seymour was the first physician in Redlands. Taking the remodeled Prospect House, the first hotel in the Redlands area, Seymour opened a medical office and began serving the community.
More than 127 years later, the work of providing health care to the community of Redlands continues. Having come a long way from Seymour’s one-doctor days, Redlands Community Hospital has been providing health care to Redlands and surrounding communities since 1904.
Located at 350 Terracina Blvd., Redlands Community Hospital boasts a staff of 270 doctors, 1,300 employees and 300 volunteers.
Equipped with 205 beds and a 24-hour emergency room, the hospital is a state-of-the-art facility.
But apart from the equipment and staff, the most important part of Redlands Community Hospital to many is the word “community.”
“Redlands Community Hospital is one of the few true community hospitals in California,” said Larry Pyle, chairman of the Redlands Community Hospital Foundation’s board of directors. “It is not owned by a large, parent corporation but remains an independent, non- profit hospital.”
“For over 100 years it has been an integral Redlands institution. Initiated, grown and governed by pa board of local people, it continues to reinvest in the communities it serves.”
Just like the community, the hospital has grown much over the years.
Following Seymour’s arrival, several more doctors came to Redlands in 1887, although there was still no hospital. Instead, hotels and sanitariums in the Redlands and Mentone areas were used to house those in need.
In June of 1903, the Redlands Medical Society, which was established in 1898, announced that the first clinic hospital would be at 114 W. Vine St., where a home had been converted and equipped with an operating room.
Realizing a much larger building was needed, the Redlands Medical Society physicians established a Redlands Hospital Association and raised $15,000 to build a two-story hospital on the corner of Nordina and Clark streets.
Completed in November of 1904, the Redlands Hospital served the community from that location until 1929. But with the growing Redlands population, a larger location was needed to treat the sick.
On Dec. 28, 1928, the cornerstone for the new Redlands Community Hospital on Terracina Boulevard was dedicated and in just a few months, patients were being transported from the Nordina Street hospital to the new facility.
Since 1929, Redlands Community Hospital has sat on Terracina and provided health care to the citizens of Redlands. Generations of Redlanders have been born and treated at the hospital.
Like the patients, many of the hospital staff are community based and have been working at Redlands Community Hospital for many years.
Recently retired from the medical records department, where she worked for 20 years, Betty Johnson of Cherry Valley loved working at the hospital so much that she encouraged her family to work there.
“The first day I walked in, I knew I belonged there,” Johnson said. “Over the years, I’ve seen many changes and people have come and gone. But it’s the best place to work. The administrators know who you are, and it’s just been a wonderful experience.”
Because the hospital is nonprofit, the Redlands Community Hospital Foundation was created in 1980 to be the fundraising arm of the hospital. With the constant need for funds to bring in new equipment, technology and other hospital necessities, the foundation has been integral in helping the hospital grow and serve all of its patients.
“Our sole purpose is to support the mission of the hospital,” said Zachary Tucker, president of the Redlands Community Hospital for the past six years. “The hospital is unique in that it is a stand-alone, nonprofit community hospital. So the foundation supports the hospital.”
With the support of the foundation, the hospital has continuously been able to expand and grow to meet the changes in health care practices and needs of community it serves.
From the building of the Moseley Wing and remodeled Radiology Wing in 1958 to the construction of the five-story hospital tower in 1985, expansion has been a constant throughout the history of Redlands Community Hospital.
A surgery and maternity center were recently opened, as well as the Stan and Ellen Weisser Educational Pavilion. Named for its donors, the pavilion has conference rooms for doctors to gather and for free seminars open to the public.
“Both my wife and I feel very strongly about the hospital,” said Stan Weisser, who has been involved with Redlands Community Hospital for more than 20 years and has served on the board of directors. “We believe it is one of the crown jewels of this community and a real asset.”
“The hospital needs philanthropy to do well – in order to grow in size and technology,” he said.
On top of expansion and the influx of new equipment and technology, Redlands Community Hospital also works to implement programs to reach those in need of medical treatment but who are unable or unwilling to go to the hospital.
The Health Ministry Program, part of the hospital’s pastoral care services, is one such program.
“With the Health Ministry Program, we put together a nice network of lines of communication with different congregations in the area,” said Jim Holmes, president and chief executive officer of Redlands Community Hospital said. “The goal of the program is to help them provide health care to their constituents.
“It’s important because a lot of people trust their church first. They need health care but are afraid to come in for one reason or another,” he said.
Holmes stressed that being a community hospital benefits both the hospital and the community when it comes to things like the Health Ministry Program.
Instead of having to go to a corporate parent to ask for permission or clearance to launch a program, the hospital is able to meet the health care needs of the community more quickly, Holmes said.
While the methods have changed over the years, the goal of Dr. Seymour and the first physicians who came to Redlands remain the same, kept alive by the staff and volunteers at Redlands Community Hospital.
The mission statement for the hospital says, “Our mission is to promote an environment where members of our community can receive high quality care and service so they can maintain and be restored to good health.”
And for Redlands, the hospital has lived up to its mission.
“The hospital is really a community asset,” Tucker said. “This is just another part of what makes Redlands Redlands. If it were not here, I think the quality of life in Redlands wouldn’t be what it is.”
Catherine Garcia contributed to this report.
E-mail Staff Writer Kevin Trudgeon at [email protected]
(c) 2008 Redlands Daily Facts. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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