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Show The ipleted Duchesne County 'Hospital. keynote speaker for dedication ceremonies on Saturday, May 1 2. Insert shows the original Duchesne County Hospital on second north presently occupied by the Roosevelt City offices. State of the Art Technology Hometown Compassion Very few of the current stiff at Duchesne County Hospital remember the days when the hospital was located in the old stone building occupied by the city offices today. By today's standards those facilities were primitive. Ada Matthews recalls having to shift patients beds aside in order to squeeze others through. There was space for 22 beds if a methodical arrangement wasnt a consideration. Still, recalls Dr. T.M. Buxton, "We practiced good medicine there. In 1969, the original 81 bed hospital building was dedicated along with the attached Indian Health Center. A tabloid published with the UINTAH BASIN STANDARD on September 11, 1969 proclaimed that the new facility would offer the ultimate in technology and patient care. And so it did.' But quantum advances occur yearly in the field of health care. The Basin population continued to boom. By the end of the 1970s, doctors at the hospital were still practicing good medicine, but hospital accreditation was in question. Patients frequently had to be situated in the hospital corridors. A surgical recovery room had to be designated from among empty patient rooms. Recruitment of new doctors, always a factor in a rural area, had become almost impossible. By 1981 the need for expanded medical facilities had become critical and county commissioners and the hospital board took a bond to the voters. The resulting 66 million bond included a doubling expansion of the hospital, a medical clinic to be built in Duchesne, and funds to purchase updated equipment Architect Gary Collins' began to prepare the layouts with imput gathered from the administration, boardcommiss-sioners- , as well aa the medical staff and director of nursing at the hospital Construction began in the fall of 1982 with the Bank Builders Corporation (BBC) of St Louis as the general contractors. Major subcontractors were: CCI Mechanical, and Interstate Electric. Theron and Ron Robb were responsible for the framing, sheetrocking and much of the interior work, and Todd Jensen of Space Design installed the counter and cabinet components. George Adams coordinated the county concerns in the project Staff and patients were able to move into the new position of the expansion in November 1983, and extenaive remodeling continued on the original building. . . . Undaunted by construction workmen laboring right at their elbows, the hospital staff kept the facility running amoothly. Inconveniences were endured by alL As departments were the staffs moved in. Because of the scope of the project and its direct involvement with so many people, the hospital has taken on an almost personal aspect. Each employee ia proud of his or her department and anxious to point out' its merits to the visitor or patient. Again, this tabloid proclaims the, hospital expansion to be the ultimate in technology. But as important as the is the "good medicine technology, practiced here, and the 136 employees who blend skill and compassion to make Duchesne County Hospital a remarkable institution. |