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NRMC to observe 75th anniversary
Nevada Regional Medical Center will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a 4:30 p.m. May 7 ice cream and cake social and the opening of a time capsule in the front circle parking lot of the 800 S. Ash St. hospital.
Retired physicians, CEO-President Judy Feuquay and others will speak after Mayor Brian Leonard proclaims May 6-12 as National Hospital Week in Nevada.
The week-long observance will lead into the NRMC Foundation's Ninth Annual Caring with Pride Golf Classic Tournament May 11 at Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course.
Hospital Guest Services Coordinator Jennifer Eaton said Thursday that the $11,000 the tournament raised last year provided an infant security system for the maternity department.
Eaton said a 25-year-old time capsule was in a recently removed retaining wall, so it won't require any arduous digging or opening.
Understanding that Nevada needed a hospital and had a possible way to finance it dates back to a special city council meeting on May 24, 1935, and the hiring of architect Dan R. Sanford two days later, according to hospital records.
On June 18 that year in the depths of the Great Depression, the council passed Resolution 131 to seek a grant from the U.S. Federal Emergency Admini-stration of Public Works.
And on Aug. 18, 1935, Nevadans passed "by a large majority" a proposal to increase the city's indebtedness by $35,000 to build and equip a hospital.
The last two quarters of 1935 had been exciting, but it took almost a year for the federal government to move. "On Oct. 27, 1936, the council voted unanimously to accept an offer of up to $27,450 from the U.S. to construct Nevada City Hospital," NRMC records say.
The land was purchased from Bess C. Price for $1,400, building contractor Joe G. Welborn was hired for $51,000 and the grand opening of the hospital was held on Dec. 23, 1937. It had 25 beds and 12 employees.
Milestones since then have also included the 1950 construction of a new wing with 32 beds and the 1968 creation of a rehabilitation department for occupational and speech and language therapy, cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation and sports medicine.
By the late 1960s, more than 30 years' service and changing times had necessitated a new hospital. One was completed in 1970 with an intensive care unit, a newly equipped laboratory and respiratory therapy, diagnostic imaging and obstetrics departments.
The vacated City Hospital building was converted into the 78-bed Moore-Few Care Center, which moved to new quarters adjoining the hospital in 1988.
The Medical Arts Building was established in 1990 for allergists, ophthalmologists, cardiologists, orthopedists, neurologists and other visiting specialists.
The 36-bed Paul and Martha Barone Alzheimer's Care Center opened in 1991 and the hospital's name was changed to Nevada Regional Medical Center in 1993 "to more accurately meet the ever-changing needs of the community and to reflect the services available at NRMC," hospital history says.
A major renovation project in 1993 revamped the lobby, gift shop, chapel, first floor corridors, parking areas, third floor of the Medical Arts Building and physical therapy, obstetrics, emergency and diagnostic imaging departments.
The NRMC Foundation was chartered in 1995 "to expand the philanthropic efforts of individuals, businesses and corporations, purchase equipment and provide community service," the history says.
After Sheldon Family Medical Clinic opened in 1998 for patients in Vernon and Barton counties, the hospital went online at nrmchealth.com with health information, a physicians' directory, job postings, community events and volunteer opportunities.
More recent developments have included 2002's opening of the Behavioral Health Unit, the advent of digital imaging to make X-rays "film-less" and completion of the new Patient Tower and Medical Mall in 2003 and 2005's arrival of state-of-the-art ultrasound technology, among other achievements.
