Expanding care and providing a resilient future for our community By Robert Holland, MD, PhD President, CMH Board of Trustees Following the consolidation of Columbia Hospital and St. Mary Hospital, Columbia Memorial Hospital opened its doors at 2111 Exchange St. in 1977. Since then, it’s added new clinics, providers and service lines, growing along with the ever-popular Columbia coast region. From its humble beginnings in 1927 to its current status as one of the largest rural health care systems in the state, CMH has worked to bridge the gap between its rural location and access to specialty care close to home. In line with CMH’s mission to provide excellence in caring for our community’s health needs, the Board of Trustees has recognized the need to upgrade. In 2017, we took the first step toward modernizing our campus with the opening of the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative. Now, to broaden the scope of our services and ensure state-of-the-art care throughout the hospital, we need to expand our physical spaces, streamline equipment and diagnostic services, and add specialties often found only in larger institutions. After 45 years in our facility, it is time to consider a new hospital building project, introducing the area to a new era in health care. While the current hospital facility has been wellmaintained, it lacks expandability and is vulnerable to earthquakes, tremors and tsunamis. We need a new, resilient health care facility that will endure and help the community thrive for the next 50 years. That’s where an expanded facility comes in. As a private, notfor-profit health system, we are deeply committed to improving our community’s health and well-being, seeking new ways to innovate, and advancing our level of care and service while holding to our Planetree philosophy of person-centered care. From our Family Birth Center to Lower Columbia Hospice, CMH aims to be the provider of choice and a trusted center of health and wellness for the region. For more than 11 years, we’ve partnered with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to bring specialty services to the area. Our continuing partnership with OHSU will maintain access to front-line medical changes, research and the best care available anywhere. The expanded facility will allow seamless coordination of care with physicians, surgeons and other health care professionals for nearly all levels of patient need, before birth and beyond. The current facility can’t support the growing demand for services and providers in our area. Moreover, improvements are needed so it can survive a natural disaster. We intend to construct a facility that will take us into the next century while bringing safe, state-of-the-art health care to the Lower Columbia region. Necessary growth Growing to meet the needs of our community has always been a part of our plan. to meet your needs Growing 4 HEALTH COMPASS EARLY SPRING 2023
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