A 40-bed section of the Vancouver Memorial Hospital was closed in the mid-1970s due to a declining number of patients. (The Columbian files)Photo Gallery
After almost a century of providing a home for local health care, change is coming for what was once Vancouver Memorial Hospital. This fall, PeaceHealth will no longer offer services at the Main Street site.
“The building has been in decline for some time, and recent information revealed immediate needs for infrastructure improvements,” Debra Carnes, senior director for marketing and communications at PeaceHealth’s Columbia network, said in a statement Wednesday. “The magnitude of the needs has led to the decision to close the services offered at this site.”
Nearly 100 years ago, Clark General Hospital opened to much fanfare. According to archives, the opening was a two-day event, complete with orchestral performances. Much has changed at the health center, which welcomed many local babies into the world and healed many wounds. For nearly 30 years, it has served as an urgent care center. At the end of September, PeaceHealth Memorial Urgent Care facility will close.
PeaceHealth will also relocate its outpatient behavior health program, ADAPT, from the 3400 Main St. site. PeaceHealth Family Medicine at Memorial Medical Office Building next door at 110 E. 33rd St. will remain open.
The health care system will open a new clinic to share the space at its Fisher’s Landing Clinic at 16811 S.E. McGillivray Blvd. Carnes said the new clinic will offer “expanded hours that will better serve patients with urgent care needs seven days a week.”
While there are a number of urgent care operations in Clark County, there is only one other urgent care clinic in west Vancouver, Legacy-GoHealth Urgent Care at 8013 N.E. Sixth Ave. in the Hazel Dell Marketplace.
All of the caregiver positions at Memorial Urgent Care are being eliminated, according to Carnes. She said the caregivers will be able to apply for positions at the new clinic in Fisher’s Landing.
The behavior health program will relocate to other hospital space, said Carnes. But, that location hasn’t yet been decided.
“PeaceHealth remains committed to caring for our community,” said Carnes. “These changes are aimed at better meeting the evolving needs and expectations of patients, while also expanding access to care.”
The building dates back to 1929, when it opened with just 30 beds as Clark General Hospital. According to archives, the hospital saw 814 patients and had 104 births in its first year.
As the region’s shipyards expanded the local population during World War II, the hospital was remodeled and expanded to 150 beds and was soon after renamed Vancouver Memorial Hospital in 1945.
Over the years, more expansions were added and more wings were built. But with St. Joseph Hospital nearby, the board of directors of the two hospitals voted to merge. St. Joseph Hospital and Vancouver Memorial became Southwest Washington Hospital Services in 1975, though they continued to be operated as separate entities.
In 1978, it was announced Memorial Hospital would close by 1984. A couple of years later, 15,000 people signed a petition opposing the hospital’s closure. Still, Southwest’s trustees decided to proceed with their plan. Within two years, they wavered, voting to keep acute care at both St. Joseph’s and Memorial open.
For years to come, hospital officials continued to debate keeping the Memorial campus open. Ultimately, population growth in east Vancouver drove more and more people to the area’s more central hospital. In 1984, the trustees again voted to consolidate inpatient care to St. Joseph’s. They planned to make Memorial an outpatient-only facility by 1990.
An earlier movement to keep the hospital open, The Alliance for Two Hospitals, reactivated, circulating a petition to form a new hospital district on the west side. Around 11,000 people signed the petition and brought the hospital district issue to the ballot. Ultimately it failed, however.
In 1989, St. Joseph’s was expanded and renamed Southwest Washington Medical Center. Memorial would go on to become the medical center’s Memorial Campus.
Two years later, acute care services moved to the new Southwest Washington Medical Center. Memorial’s obstetrics department closed, and the new medical center’s Family Birth Center opened. Not long after, Memorial’s emergency room closed.
The facility has served as an urgent care ever since, even once Southwest Washington Health System merged with Bellingham-based PeaceHealth hospital system the in 2010. (PeaceHealth later moved its headquarters to Vancouver.)
While the Memorial campus will no longer be home to PeaceHealth’s health care services, its future isn’t yet set in stone.
“No decisions have been made about the future of the building,” said Carnes.
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