New Hospital
As technical knowledge increased and the mechanics of delivering health care became more complex each year, the Board of Trustees began to contemplate if a new hospital was needed. A thorough examination of building was undertaken, with particular attention paid to changing fire and building codes. Also a nationally-recognized consultant was asked to review the community's health care needs and make a recommendation. As a result, a recommendation was made to build a new hospital.
A 27-acre (110,000 m2) tract of land was acquired, and in February 1958 an announcement was made that a new $5-million hospital would be built. $1.5-million of the cost was to be raised by the local community, with the rest of the expense to be borne by the LDS Church. Lack of community interest was evident and by August 11, 1958 planning for the new Hospital had been suspended. It wasn't until April, 1962, that a new Presiding Bishop, John H. Vandenberg, announced Keith Wilcox and Associates had been selected to begin architectural work on a new hospital, now estimated to cost $8-million. The community would be asked to raise $1.6 million.
In 1963 the Hospital Development committee suggested that the proposed new hospital be named in honor of LDS Church President David O. McKay, as it was President McKay who brought the Thomas D. Dee Memorial Hospital into the Church Hospital System. In August 1965 final plans for the 380-bed hospital were ready, with require 730 calendar days to be completed. However biding for the construction project would not be opened until January 26, 1966. On April 20, 1966, the First Presidency authorized construction of the Hospital at a cost of $9,971,785, including furnishings. Okland Construction Company of Salt Lake City was low bidder at $8,198,000. A formal ground-breaking ceremony was held on Friday, April 23, 1966, when President McKay threw the switch to detonate dynamite that signaled start of construction.
The fund drive for the new Hospital continued, with famed comedian Jack Benny was brought to Valley Music Hall in Bountiful. Hospital architect Keith Wilcox and builder Jack Okland also announced plans to construct a professional building adjacent to the McKay.
The new Hospital, plagued by construction problems since the groundbreaking, encountered yet another setback in February when the vinyl flooring did not meet specifications. Its opening was postponed until mid-May. In actuality, it was July 9, 1969, before the Hospital was ready. One-hundred-fifty-four patients were transferred to the McKay from the Dee on July 12, 1969, in two hours and 40 minutes. The only unit remaining open in the Dee Hospital was the Tuberculosis ward, until those patients were moved to the Weber County Hospital on June 30.
Read more about this topic: Mc Kay-Dee Hospital Center, History
Famous quotes containing the word hospital:
“The church is a sort of hospital for men’s souls, and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies. Those who are taken into it live like pensioners in their Retreat or Sailor’s Snug Harbor, where you may see a row of religious cripples sitting outside in sunny weather.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Radio put technology into storytelling and made it sick. TV killed it. Then you were locked into somebody else’s sighting of that story. You no longer had the benefit of making that picture for yourself, using your imagination. Storytelling brings back that humanness that we have lost with TV. You talk to children and they don’t hear you. They are television addicts. Mamas bring them home from the hospital and drag them up in front of the set and the great stare-out begins.”
—Jackie Torrence (b. 1944)