History
In the late 1940s the idea of a new modern hospital for Clarion and the surrounding communities took root. After a tortuous and deeply emotional debate – according to the Wright County Monitor, the idea became a reality when “sufficient funds were present” to hire an architect. Plans were designed, a site was donated and the hospital then, the Community Memorial Hospital was built. An editorial in the Monitor at the time stated this about the original building: “To say that Clarion’s hospital is one of the finest structures we have ever seen is a gross understatement.” The people of Clarion were obviously impressed with the new structure. Since that time, the hospital has had several more major additions and renovations that were completed in 1962, 1966, 1972, 1982, 1992 and more recently in 1997 when Project Healthcare was completed and the new 9 bed wing became a reality. Community Memorial Hospital admitted its first patient on November 29, 1951.
Ten years ago the Meadows were built and celebrated their 10 year anniversary on July 2, 2003. The Meadows independent retirement community was developed to meet the needs of the elderly residents of the community. Bob and Jane Davison donated the land where the Meadows is built and played an instrumental role in the kick-off of the idea. There were 4 “Bobs” who played a large role in the success of the Meadows. Bob Davison, who donated the land with his wife, Jane; Bob Kay, who brought the idea of an independent retirement facility to Clarion and then did much of the research on the project and Bob Eaton, who contributed many excellent design ideas and Bob Orcutt. After all this planning, the Meadows became a reality in 1993.
In 2006 a major renovation and expansion project took place. An addition was built at the south-east corner of the complex and the entire building was remodeled at a cost of $4.5 million. Also at that time an addition was built to the Meadows which houses an 18-unit assisted living facility. In 2007 the new Wright Medical Wellness Center was built in Eagle Grove.
In 2007, Wright Medical Center and Belmond Medical Center began collaboration by sharing administration, physicians and other ways to minimize the number of patients leaving Wright County for healthcare.
Read more about this topic: Wright Medical Center
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“If usually the “present age” is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.”
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916)