** Our Mission **
To secure and manage gift support to assist Boscobel Area health Care meet the heath care needs of the community by funding
* Community Education
* Staff Development
* Facilities and equipment
** Our Vision **
By developing a sense of community ownership and trust, we will have a significant impact in securing the future of Boscobel Area Health Care through creating an endowment and realizing measurable improvement in community health.
History Of Boscobel Area Health Care
** History of Boscobel Area Health Care **
While the business we know as Boscobel Area Health Care can trace its history back over 50 years, the story of quality health care services has roots that reach even farther into our community's past.
The first hospital in Boscobel was started by Dr. F.S. Tuffley in 1914 and was known as the Brookside Hospital. Today that building still remains as a private residence.
Brookside-Parker Hospital In 1918 Dr. Tuffley purchased the Pipkin home and moved the hospital to that location. It was named the Parker Hospital at the suggestion of the previous owner. Later, Dr. Tuffley sold this hospital to Drs. C.S. Hayman, E.H. Spiegleberg and J.C. Betz, and for a time resumed operation of the Brookside Hospital. The Brookside location was discontinued later and the Parker became known as the Brookside-Parker Hospital. Our current facility includes the land where that building once stood. A third hospital, the Community Hospital, existed from 1927 until about 1945.
In 1920 Drs. Spiegleberg and Betz formed a clinic located on the second floor of the Parker-Hildebrand building, where they served patients until Dr. Betz retired and Dr. E.F. Freymiller took over his practice in the same location.
Drs. E.F. Freymiller, M.W. Randall, J.R. McNamee and E.M. Randall formed a clinic at the same location in 1946 and purchased the Brookside-Parker Hospital, including the city block of property on which it stood. Drs. McNamee and Randall later built the clinic on Parker Street (now called the “Boscobel Clinic”) in 1958 and Dr. C.E. Mueller joined them at that time.
Reid, Curry, Swenson, VonHaden By the late 1940s it became clear to many community leaders that Boscobel needed a new hospital facility and a federal program, the Hill-Burton Act, offered rural communities an opportunity to build one if local funds were raised as a match. As one of the organizers of the initial effort, Jack Curry, recalls, “... the term ‘strategic plan’ didn't exist then. There weren't mission statements. There was simply a need - a need to provide the area with good medical care.” A team of dedicated volunteers began the work that developed into a fundraising campaign that was launched in October 1950. The community responded generously, led by significant donations from the Blake-Semrad Post No. 134 of the American Legion and Mr. & Mrs. Lou B. Ruka. The owners of the Brookside-Parker Hospital donated the building, its equipment and the land to help make the project successful. Gifts were received from throughout the area, small and large. All were received gratefully as part of the building blocks for the future of health care in the community.
Beginning the Work Memorial Hospital of Boscobel Association was incorporated as a not-for-profit Wisconsin corporation on July 20, 1946. Persons listed as forming the corporation were R.M. Johnson, J.E. Schoonover, Mrs. Gladys Berberich, Mrs. Celia M. Mallat, Fred L. McDowell and Frank J. Kretschmann, all of Boscobel.
The successful campaign was led by Jack Curry, Campaign Chairman, and A.J. Swenson, Mel Olson, Charles E. Boebel, H.E. Howe, Rev. Austin Henry, J. Evans Barnett, Leo Johnson, Harold L. Black, Mrs. W.E. (Emma) Shipley, Rev. F.W. Landdeck, F. J. Kretschmann and many others.
The new Memorial Hospital of Boscobel opened in October 1952, ready to provide “integrated, coordinated, dependable and constantly ready personnel and services to serve patients and to save human lives.”
