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| Name |
Mt Ascutney Hosp And Hlth Ctr |
| Address |
289 County Road |
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| Town |
Windsor |
| State |
Vermont |
| Country |
USA |
| Post Code |
05089 |
| Phone |
802 674 6711 |
| Fax |
802 674 7155 |
| Email |
| Website |
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Specialization Of Mt Ascutney Hosp And Hlth Ctr
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Obestetrician/Gynecologist |
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About Mt Ascutney Hosp And Hlth Ctr
** Mission Statement **
Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center's Mission is to provide the highest quality healthcare in a fiscally responsible manner.
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History Of Mt Ascutney Hosp And Hlth Ctr
** History **
** Celebrating 75 Years **
This is the story of a community hospital that wouldn’t take no for an answer
As Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, its history includes a difficult birth - it was founded during the Great Depression - and a determined rebirth with a new hospital in 1972.
Of that time, former trustee Tom Levesque of Windsor recalls, "A lot of people said we didn’t need a new hospital, that the town wasn’t big enough, and that we couldn’t afford it. … I think we showed them that we did, we were, and we can."
For 75 years, the region has supported a community hospital that grew beyond the dreams of the original founders. Mt. Ascutney Hospital traces it roots to 1933, when the Windsor Hospital Corp. formed. Organizers were trying to keep a hospital in town after a private one struggled.
Windsor Hospital was established in what is now the Stoughton House on Main Street, a former mansion deeded to the cause by Allen Evarts. After a fund drive raised $700 for second-hand hospital beds and an old Army operating table, Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Patch traveled to Maine to procure them.
The first patient was Cora Harris, a local librarian who had fractured her hip. The first baby, Joseph Kazura Jr., was born Jan. 30, 1934. Office visits cost $1.50, and house calls a dollar more.
"It was small and personal," said Dr. Dale Gephart, a retired physician who worked in the old hospital briefly before the present hospital opened. "It was a real home atmosphere," said Jan Lynch, a retired nurse who served several stints as hospital administrator. "The staff were very caring."
The early doctors kept daunting schedules. They worked in the hospital, had their own office hours, took turns in the emergency room and delivered babies. They made house calls as well. "They worked," said Lynch, giving the word a dramatic emphasis. For many years, four principal doctors - Dr. Robert W. Ballantyne, Dr. William H. Krause, Dr. Owen W. Rhoad, and Dr. William M. Waterman, provided around the clock coverage for Windsor and the surrounding area.
Olive Miller of Windsor recalled Dr. Ballantyne stopping in as he was making house calls and sitting in a comfortable chair for 15 minutes in front of a mural with a lake scene. "He’d fold his arms and sit, almost mesmerized." He told Miller that he relaxed by imagining himself in a canoe on the lake. If he nodded off, it would have been natural. "Many, many nights he didn’t get any sleep," she said.
Hazel Slayton, a lab technologist at the hospital since 1959, and the hospital’s longest-serving employee, shares an admiration for the physicians of that era. "The doctors were very dedicated. That’s what kept the hospital going."
Healthcare operated on a different scale then. Miller had five babies at the hospital over the years, and she remembers staying for a full two weeks after a birth. Jean Willard, accounting supervisor and a 40-year hospital employee, said the hospital’s volume was "almost nothing" compared to today. The atmosphere was "family oriented," she recalled. "You knew everybody." Economic realities have changed, too. She found a bill from 1955 that totaled $75.15 for a baby girl’s delivery and five-day hospital stay.
Windsor was a busy town in the hospital’s early decades. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plant and the Cone Automatic Machine Company were major employers, and a state prison was located in the downtown district. Shoppers headed to Main Street stores on Friday night to buy shoes and clothes and groceries.
By the late 1960s and early ’70s, the hospital was again facing challenges. The doctors who’d been the foundation were at retirement age, and new physicians were needed. Lynch said the old hospital building no longer met codes, and state officials were threatening to shut it down.
Meanwhile, regionalization had become popular among planners. State officials were promoting a regional hospital proposed for Charlestown, N.H., to replace many of the community hospitals in the area.
But Windsor Hospital’s board and administration had other ideas. Lynch said they decided to build a new hospital on former prison farm land on County Road, a project that they undertook without state or federal support, or dollars. "The idea of building a new hospital was a major turning point in its history," said Dr. Gephart. "It offered an opportunity to decide what kind of hospital it would be, and who it would serve."
Without outside aid, the hospital depended on local support. Employers in town allowed payroll deduction for contributions. Area residents pledged over $600,000 for the new hospital, which opened in 1972. It had a 30-bed nursing home attached, and eight extended-care beds. With the change came a new identity. Windsor Hospital Corp. still exists as the corporate name, but the hospital does business as Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, reflecting a new, wider mission.
"We were told that this was the hospital that couldn’t be built, and here it is," said a speaker at the dedication ceremony. News accounts at the time mentioned the contributions of the four doctors who had served the hospital, and said that several new doctors would have offices there as well.
Also thanked was Agatha Young, an author of 22 books and major hospital benefactor who had Washington, D.C., connections. She was consultant to the Secretary of War during World War II and a special consultant to the White House under three presidents. Lynch called her a "fairy godmother."
A young professional administrator, Smith Mowry, took over when the new hospital was built. Those who recall that era say he was well liked by the staff and community. Tragedy struck several years later when he was killed in a car accident on the way to work. Lynch said that was a traumatic time for the hospital.
The new facility was larger, but it retained many of its old qualities. One was a tendency to retain staff for long tenures, something that continues to this day. Lynch said, "It was a homey atmosphere. You could grow along with the facility." She estimated that when she started at the old hospital in the 1950s, it probably had a staff of about 30. Last year, the employee roster topped 500.
Dr. Gephart said the hospital kept a sense of history through the years. "People said, ‘This is how we do things in Windsor,’ " he said. Dr. Beach Conger, who has been with the hospital for more than 25 years, has said that when he first arrived he asked about doing annual physicals. "You won’t have time for those,” he was told, "We treat sick people."
The current CEO, Richard Slusky, is among those who’ve stayed awhile. He was recognized for 25 years of service last year, and under his leadership the hospital has survived and even thrived in a time when some community hospitals in the Twin States have gone out of business. "Richard has created a rich corporate culture of caring for patients and staff," said Hal Pyke, president of the hospital’s Board of Trustees. He also lauded Slusky’s "ability to accept risk and face challenges."
During Slusky’s tenure, Mt. Ascutney Hospital has added a rehabilitation unit and a therapeutic pool, creating a niche that serves a wide region. While the early hospital relied on four mainstay doctors, the medical staff in 2007 numbered nearly 100, including full-time staff and many who provide specialty services on a part-time basis. Its regional scope includes membership in the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Alliance, a three-state network of hospitals and healthcare organizations.
Locally, the hospital partners on community projects such as the Historic Homes of Runnemede senior housing (which includes the original hospital site at the Stoughton House) and the Windsor Connection Resource Center. It has taken the lead in community education programs and sponsored the Windsor Community Health Initiative. In 2003, it was one of four national finalists for the American Hospital Association’s Foster G. McGaw Prize for community service.
For more than 10 years, the hospital has hosted a Healing Arts Clinic with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners. In 2007, it took over management of the Ottauquechee Health Center, strengthening ties to Woodstock and surrounding communities.
Technology has recently become a bigger part of its history. Just last year the hospital added a new CT scanner, a bone densitometry machine, a digital radiology system, and adopted electronic medical records. It’s in the forefront of a regional effort to develop a system to allow hospitals to share medical information electronically when that’s needed.
The building has grown, too. A little over a year ago the hospital dedicated its largest expansion ever at its current location, a $5.75 million project that added to the Emergency Department, and improved space for Laboratory, Radiology and Surgical Services. "The building has caught up to the care we deliver," said Nancy Loux, vice president of the Board of Trustees.
This time, the state applauded the building project. Gov. James Douglas, on hand to help cut a ceremonial ribbon at the dedication, congratulated the hospital. "I think this is an addition of which everyone can be rightfully proud," he said
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