Promising Outlook

E.W. Lister

In 1959, twelve years after the Thornton Hospital had been sold and the $450,000 fund drive had begun, the name was changed to Community Hospital to emphasize that it was a facility for Missoula and Western Montana. Dr. GordonReynolds, president of the hospital board, announced another drive to raise $500,000 to enlarge the structure. The city was growing rapidly and the hospital was running at 112 per cent capacity.

By 1964 the board realized that an entirely new hospital was needed, and it announced another campaign to raise funds for a $2 million building. Although St. Patrick had accommodated the needs of the 1950s, Missoula required additional new facilities in the early 1960s: by 1964, 150 of Missoula's 317 hospital beds were in buildings more than 40 years old. Community was a 38-bed hospital caring for 44 patients and turning many away, which the Montana State Board of Health termed "unacceptable and nonconforming".

In 1964 Community Hospital bought five acres on Middlesex Street for $25,000. In 1965 a hospital consultant, Dr. Gerhart Hartman, advised Missoula hospitals to reevaluate their goals for the next 25 years and listed these criteria for an ideal hospital site: Availability to the public, environmental considerations, availability to public services, cost, and space for expansion.

In the fall of 1965, the hospital purchased 40.3 acres of county land at Fort Missoula at $3,600 and acre. However, federal assistance for construction of a new hospital would not be available until $1 million had been raised locally.

In 1968 E. W. Lister was elected president of the hospital board, and a large community dinner was held at the University of Montana to start another campaign for funds. At this time, Missoula had more doctors per capita than any other city of its size in the country. A 50-per-cent population increase I Missoula by 1975 and a need for 139 new hospital beds were projected.