Memorial Hospital: Facts and Figures

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• Founded: 1950.
• Ownership: Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital Association, a private not-for-profit organization governed by a board of directors.
• Board chair: Royal Keith
• Chief Executive Officer: Rick Linneweh.
• Location: Based in Yakima with locations throughout Yakima County.
• Accreditation: The Joint Commission.
• Patient admissions: 12,765 (2006).
• Hospital inpatient services include: Cancer Care, Heart Care, Critical Care, Orthopaedics, Surgery, The Family Birthplace, Pediatric Care, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Surgery, Psychiatric Care.
• Hospital square footage: 449,279.
• Campus size: 26.4 square acres.
• Fiscal year: Nov. 1 through Oct. 31.
• Total employees: approximately 1,830.
• Total licensed hospital beds: 225.
• Net patient revenues: $216,459,000 (2006 fiscal year).
• Charity care: $7.4 million (2006 fiscal year).
• Active volunteers:  311 (2006 fiscal year).
• Physicians on medical staff: 327, representing 35 specialties.
• Emergency department visits: 58,165 (2006).
• Babies born at Family Birth Center: 3,029 (2005 to 2006).
• Memorial’s Family of Services includes:
  • Memorial’s 16th Avenue Station.
  • North Star Lodge.
  • Children’s Village.
  • Home Health and Hospice.
  • Sleep Center at Memorial.
  • Heritage Grove.
  • Garden Village.
  • Surgi-Center at Memorial.
  • ‘Ohana, Memorial’s Mammography Center.
  • Family Medicine of Yakima.
  • Pacific Crest Family Medicine.
  • Cornerstone Medical Clinic.
  • Yakima Gastroenterology Associates.
  • Yakima Neurosurgery Associates.
  • Yakima Plastic Surgery Associates.
  • Memorial’s Valley Imaging.
  • Cascade Surgical Partners

Committed To Our Community

Our Community. Our Commitment.

Memorial Hospital will always be grounded by our community roots. When its founders planted the seed 58 years ago, it was probably hard to imagine that the hospital would grow into the mighty tree it is today, with branches that extend far and wide.

Health Matters

Meeting the health care needs of the communities we serve is the cornerstone of Memorial’s not-for-profit mission. That mission also extends to serving those who cannot afford health care and to supporting programs and services for those in financial need.

Local governance, local decisions for local people. Members of Memorial’s Board of Trustees are local people who make decisions that are carefully considered to provide the best possible health care for our community.

Our Role as Not-for-profit

Unlike health care systems owned by for-profit companies that return profit to stockholders, Memorial is a not-for-profit organization with a charitable purpose. Memorial Hospital was founded in 1950 by a group of local citizens. As a not-for-profit hospital any money remaining after expenses have been paid is reinvested in health care. That money stays in the community to purchase needed medical equipment and support health education and other community health needs.

It’s better for patients

The community-owned, not-for-profit approach to health care best serves our patients and our communities – for multiple reasons. It’s good for patients. For profit hospitals focus mainly on acute care and services that have a “bottom line”. Not-for-profit hospitals have a full continuum of services, with many that do not have a positive bottom line.

Our stockholders are our communities

The local Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees bases all decisions on the needs of the community. Investor-owned, for-profit health systems have a financial incentive to avoid caring for uninsured and underinsured patients. They have a financial incentive to avoid hard-to-serve populations.

Memorial offers many programs that are costly and generally unprofitable, such as the community cancer registry, diabetes education and various programs for children and families, such as the ABC (After the Baby Comes) Clinic, YouthWorks, and Passport To Health®.

It’s our mission to sustain much needed services, regardless of how we are reimbursed.

Providing charity care and special programs to communities

In 2006, Memorial provided a record $26.5 million in programs for the underserved and on services for the broader community.

Memorial fulfills vital community needs through community benefit programs to help to make our community healthier.

Memorial’s Commitment to the Community

The following is a summary of Memorial’s commitment to the communities it serves:

Community Benefit (in millions) 2006
*Services for the poor and underserved $20.9

**Benefits for the broader community $5.6

*Services provided to persons who cannot afford health care because of inadequate resources and/or are uninsured or underinsured. It also includes the unpaid cost of treating Medicaid, Medicare, charity care and public/indigent care beneficiaries.

**Providing health screenings, community-based clinical service, community health education, and other health related services, training health professionals, and the cost of performing vital medical research, and health care support services.

Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital: Our Beginnings

The words, “Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, wherein is enshrined the living heart and spirit of a charitable and generous people,” are as true today as they were 60 years ago.

It was in 1943 that Yakima accountant, Edwin B. Mueller’s daughter, Carol, was diagnosed with “high polio,” a potentially fatal strain of the disease. She was sent to the local children’s ward (collection of beds) at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Yakima’s only inpatient medical facility.

Sensing somehow that Carol would not survive the polio attack, Ed and his wife Phyllis were determined to remain by the 9-year-old’s bedside. Overcrowding made their desire impossible, and the Mueller’s daughter drew her last breath with her parents in a waiting room just outside the crowded ward.

Shortly after Carol’s death, Ed made a solemn vow, “I never wanted another parent to be denied being with their loved ones during severe crises, only because of hospital space.”

In 1944, Ed Mueller met his friends, attorney George Martin, and funeral director Donald Keith, over a cup of coffee to discuss his plans for a new hospital. They took their idea to James Bronson, director of Boise Cascade, and orchardist Ernest Kershaw. Through the determination of these five men, 16 community leaders banded together to explore the possibility of building a new hospital in Yakima. In May 1944, the Articles of Incorporation as a non-profit, charitable organization were filed, and Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital was formed.

Before a formal fundraising campaign was launched, trustees wanted to see if the public would support the project. A weekend was chosen to take the idea to the community and “test” public opinion. During the first few hours of the pledge drive, $180,000 was collected!

Truly the people of Yakima wanted Memorial to be built. Fundraising began in earnest. A site in the middle of the “lower orchards,” just outside Yakima’s limits (on what is now Tieton Drive) was selected. A Chicago architect specializing in hospitals was chosen and building plans were approved in 1946.

On July 7, 1947, The Honorable William O. Douglas, Justice of the United States Supreme Court, formally dedicated the hospital site. Construction by William Yeaman & Co. began on May 24, 1948. At the formal groundbreaking ceremony, members of the board of trustees each turned a shovel of dirt using a “golden” spade. Just a year later, the cornerstone of the new hospital was laid, engraved with a message for all to ponder: “Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, wherein is enshrined the living heart and spirit of a charitable and generous people.”

By June 3, 1950, the building was complete and ready to receive visitors. Almost 15,000 people toured the hospital during open house festivities. On June 20, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital opened its doors to patients with 146 beds and 155 employees supported by over 200 auxiliary members who worked as unit clerks, dietary aides, office help and wherever else they were needed—including furnishing homemade sandwiches, cookies and coffee for the hospital’s first cafeteria.

About Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital

Welcome to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, a thriving hospital in a growing community.  We champion the hallmarks of superior health care in an environment that emphasizes our core values of compassion, respect, excellence, accountability, teamwork and safety. And we pride ourselves on creating a first-rate place to support your professional development as well as provide a welcoming home for you and your family.

Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital is a 225-bed regional referral center. The hospital has a full array of medical and surgical specialties and is licensed by the Washington Department of Health and fully accredited by The Joint Commission. Memorial is a member of the American Hospital Association and the Washington State Hospital Association. Areas of excellence include cancer care, heart care, children’s services, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatric care, wound care, neurosurgery, plastic surgery and sleep disorder services.

Memorial staff is constantly involved with in-service programs to improve existing techniques and to learn new ones. Central Washington Family Medicine offers an exceptional family medicine residency in our community. Memorial provides clinical training for:

About Yakima

Here in the Yakima Valley, life is enjoyed at a relatively relaxed pace. The 250,000 people who consider the Yakima Valley home boast that we are the gateway to the Washington wine country and the Cascade Mountains with easy access to the great outdoors and numerous recreation opportunities.

Culturally diverse and close to Seattle, Portland and Spokane, residents can enjoy the benefits and conveniences of larger cities while simultaneously taking advantage of a lower cost of living and a more relaxed lifestyle.

More about our community

• Community Information.
• Culture and Heritage.
• Arts and Entertainment.
• Sports and Recreation.
• Education.
• Washington Wine Country.
• Central Washington Attractions.
• Calendar of Events.