In June of 1996, in recognition of O'Bleness Memorial Hospital's 75th anniversary, The Athens Messenger published a 12-page tabloid about the hospital and its beginning as Sheltering Arms Hospital. We have published the tabloid on the internet for your information and enjoyment. We hope that you find the information about our past interesting as well as informative. Listed below are articles published in the tabloid.
Sheltering Arms Hospital is Born
Hospital Benefactor Left His Mark
Modernization Prepares for the Future
Pioneering doctors
Early physicians in Athens were paid with chickens
From the earliest days of pioneer settlement in Athens and the surrounding area, men and women blessed with the healing arts came to live and offer their services to their communities. Some were formally trained in medical schools, while others learned through apprenticeship with doctors. Often, many generations of one family became physicians. In Trimble, Harvey Danford, his son Verne and his grandson Byron Danford were all doctors. The Sprague family from Athens is another example. Brothers John R., Wiley T. and Warren V. Sprague were all doctors from the late 1800s into the mid-1900s. Several of their children became doctors. These included John T., Edward Allen and William E., all sons of John R., and Lindley V., son of Warren.
In a document written by Anna Devlin, wife of John R. Sprague, the story of Mary Magdalene Haning Brooks—surely a pioneer female doctor in more than one sense— is recorded:
"The first doctor in the Pleasant Hill area in Alexander Township was Mary Magdalene Haning Brooks, the young wife of John Brooks, whom she married when she was seventeen years old. She had a diploma to practice medicine. She rode horseback far and wide to tend the sick, wearing a large cape of Camelot cloth that was waterproof as well as warm. Dr. Mary Magdalene was the mother of twelve children."
The record doesn't say when Dr. Mary Magdalene practiced, nor does it mention when or where she earned her "doctor's diploma."
Throughout the early years of medicine in the Athens community, doctors often "made do" with whatever they had at hand, which was often very little. There was no place to operate, deliver babies or tend the critically ill except in patients' homes. Diagnostic equipment was not available to the early physicians, and anesthetics often consisted of a swig of brandy or a sniff of ether. A person with a serious injury or illness had to be transported by horse and wagon or train, and often they didn't live through the trip to find help.
It would be several years after World War I before that situation would change much. Meanwhile a young doctor, John R. Sprague—affectionately called Dr. J.R. by his patients and colleagues—began practicing in Athens in 1908. He had graduated from Starling-Ohio Medical School, now know as The Ohio State University College of Medicine. He completed post-graduate work at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. J.R. worked and studied at hospitals in New York, St. Louis, and Chicago, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Except for two years during which he was a first lieutenant during World War I, Dr. J.R. practiced in Athens until 1966. He died in 1969.
According to his son, Edward A. (Ted) Sprague, M.D., who still maintains a general practice on Columbus Road in Athens, "kitchen table surgery" was the only option for his father, uncles and other physicians during the early 1900s. Dr. J.R. is credited for pioneering major surgery in Athens and for instigating planning for a hospital.Following are Sprague's memories of his father:
"Back in those days doctors graduating from medical school didn't have to take a year of internship. A few did, most of them didn't. When they graduated most of them started to practice right away. During their senior year in medical school, doctors had a lot of clinical service at major hospitals in Columbus. So when dad arrived in Athens he set up an office right away. He didn't have a car, so he made house calls with a horse and buggy. During that time, people went to a doctor only when everything else failed. They used home remedies first. By 1912, like most doctors, dad was starving. He charged $2 for an office call and got paid maybe half the time—he got a lot of chickens and farm produce. So he took a position at the Athens State Hospital for about a year. Then he came back to private practice.
"In those days there were no antibiotics. There were no X-rays. Doctors could fix a fracture just by looking at it. They used novocaine for numbing. The office was very small because he made most of his calls to peoples' houses. Dad got his first car about 1913.
"If a diagnosis was for acute appendicitis, he would tell the patient they'd have to go to Grant Hospital in Columbus. They'd usually travel by horse and buggy to the train station and be put on a train for a three- or four-hour trip to Columbus. One of the doctors there would operate on them, but their appendix would already be ruptured and they'd always return in a casket. So Dr. John Sprague and his brother, Dr. Warren Sprague, went to Harvard and took a several-week course in surgery. They purchased surgical instruments and returned to Athens. Dad knew how to take out an appendix, but there was no hospital. So people had the choice of taking a train to Columbus or allowing my father and uncle to operate on them on their kitchen table. They had ethel chloride and ether and chloroform to put the patient to sleep. Often Dr. L.D. Nelson or Dr. E.I. Stanley would give the anesthetic, and dad would operate and Warren would assist. He would remove the appendix—usually they got it out before it ruptured. The patients got well!
"They used soap and water, plus iodine, for everything. In private homes, there is no streptococcus. There may be some bacteria, but it is harmless. There are lots more harmful bacteria in hospitals.
"They began doing hernia repairs at home. Patients had the choice of going to Columbus for the operation, where they often got gangrene and died, or they could let Dad operate on their kitchen table and take out the obstruction before they developed gangrene, and they lived!
"During the war years—1917 to 1918— all the doctors went to war except Dr. Wiley Sprague, Dr. M.H. Mitchell and Dr. Nelson. So then people either had to go to Holzer Hospital or Columbus for surgery. There was a flu epidemic in 1919 in the winter right after the war was over. The community asked for dad and the other doctors to be relieved from service right away to help with the epidemic here. They were. The doctors in the medical community here began talking about getting a hospital in Athens."Sheltering Arms Hospital Is Born
Breinigs opened home for births
The birth of a hospital in Athens happened almost by chance. Beginning May 21, 1921, Mrs. Charles Breinig invited women to use a couple of rooms of her home at 17 Clark St. to deliver their babies. Area physician John R. Sprague had made a casual remark that her home would make a good hospital after he had delivered babies for two couples who rented rooms at the Breinigs' boarding house. Edward A. (Ted) Sprague, M.D., tells the story of his father—Dr. J.R., as many called him— and other area doctors who encouraged the growth of the new "hospital."
"Mrs. Breinig who had an interest in nursing, opened a little place on Clark Street so mothers could have their babies there. Sometimes one physician would have a woman in labor in Guysville, one towards Corning and one at Albany—all at the same time. Dad figured if they were all in labor in the same place, it would work better. So Dad and the other doctors began to talk their patients into having their babies at the home on Clark Street, even though most women still wanted to have their babies in their homes. They didn't want to pay the extra $50 it would cost to go to the hospital.
"Then Dad, Dr. Warren Sprague and Dr. Blaine Goldsberry talked Mr. Breinig, who was a carpenter, into adding on two or three rooms so they could do surgery there rather than in patients' homes. They added rooms and each year the hospital expanded. In the beginning, there was one operating room and rooms for delivering babies. Then they began to take people who were seriously ill. They didn't have IVs, penicillin, X-rays or a laboratory. But patients were where they could be taken care of."
Late in the 1920s Goldsberry, who had an interest in heart disease, purchased an electrocardiogram and two X-ray machines, one of which he put in the hospital. In 1939 Sheltering Arms added a two-story wing for maternity cases, giving the hospital a capacity of 66 beds. It now filled most of a city block.
The end of World War II brought another change for the hospital. T.H. Morgan, M.D., who had arrived in Athens in the mid-'30s, bought the hospital from the Breinigs in 1947. Morgan and his second wife, Betty Gilham Morgan, were known and loved by virtually every patient and visitor who passed through the hospital because of their devotion to caring for the health of community members. Between them, their service to the hospital and community spanned more than a half-century.
Betty became administrator of Sheltering Arms in 1947, and she is remembered today both by hospital staff and patients as dedicated and loving.
Helen Ledford, who was director of nursing from 1947 until 1971, recalled working with the Morgans."Betty and I were very close friends. She was vivacious—she was just wonderful, willing to help anybody and everybody. She was a hard worker. It didn't matter to Betty what had to be done, she would do it."
John Jones, a retired Athens businessman and formerly a hospital board member, remembers Morgan as a very busy man. "Dr. Morgan was a workaholic, very dedicated to his profession. He was very well thought of and was a person that the community owes a debt of gratitude for what they have today."
When Morgan bought the hospital he announced that he would eventually give it to the community. The Sheltering Arms Hospital Foundation grew out of the first community fund drive held in 1948 to benefit the hospital. $30,0000 was raised for facility improvements. At the first foundation meeting in January 1949, 70 members elected a board of trustees. It included Mrs. B.F. Cutler, Eleanor B. Beckler, Irvin D. Quick, D.R. Zenner, Rush Elliott, C.B. Nye and Sol Rosenberg. Morgan died in 1957, and in 1959, in accordance with the terms of his will, ownership was transferred to the Sheltering Arms Foundation Inc.
For the next several years, the foundation trustees concerned themselves with internal physical improvements in the Clark Street building; sanctioned the creation of the Guild in 1961 as an organization dedicated to raising funds to support improvements and providing volunteer service; and made long-range plans that resulted in a new hospital. In 1960 Sheltering Arms received accreditation from the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals for the first time.
Betty Morgan, who later married James Anastas, continued to serve the hospital as administrator until 1966, when she retired for five years. She returned as director of volunteers from 1971 until her death in 1991.
The hard work, dedication and caring of the Morgans was shared by nurses, doctors and staff throughout the hospital. Ledford, for example, is remembered by people who both worked with her and who were her patients as hard-working, organized and devoted to her profession and patients. A former Army nurse who served on the high seas during WW II (some called her "Colonel Ledford"), she agrees with the assessment that she was strict, stern and demanding.
"I didn't stand for any foolishness such as goofing off or not taking care of your duties. I didn't have any trouble (with my nursing staff)," she said.
When asked to comment on the diverse opinions of women who reported that having a baby at Sheltering Arms was either "a nightmare" or a "wonderful experience," Ledford replied, "I think a lot of women expected to find a modern up-to-date hospital. You can have that, but you wouldn't (necessarily) get tender, loving care. And at Sheltering Arms you did get tender, loving care. You can't always judge a book by its cover."
In an Athens News article published in the late 1980s, Ledford told how nurses were responsible for cleaning patient rooms because there was no housekeeping staff. "I didn't think anything of it," she is quoted as saying. In the same article, Peg Andrews, a former nurse at the hospital, recalled staff dedication. She said that in those days nurses' duties included back rubs and complete baths. She said when she was on the night shift, one of her duties included going to the basement about one in the morning to fire up the furnace.
Reports by those who remembered Betty Morgan include her washing windows and climbing a ladder to check on repairmen. One former associate remembered her scrubbing floors alongside the janitorial staff.
Joy Boals, who works in the medical records department at O'Bleness, has been with the hospital longer than any other current employee. She started working at Sheltering Arms Oct. 20, 1952, when she was just 15 years old and still in high school. Her part-time job consisted of washing baby clothes and kitchen towels using a wringer washer in the basement.
"Betty was my supervisor—she supervised everything. Betty was like a whirlwind—she got things done. My mother (Mildred Salyers) worked here too, and she supervised me sometimes."
As time passed, Boals worked with housekeeping, where she cleaned rooms, washed windows and scrubbed floors. She worked in the autoclave area, sterilizing surgical instruments, and also cleaned the operating room. Eventually she worked in admissions, where she answered phones and helped with the billing. She remembers that when a patient was ready to leave, if there was a balance due, employees were under orders to collect. "I can remember one employee climbing up into the ambulances to get the money. Our supervisor at the time (not one of the Morgans) even took trade-ins, I think a cow once, and a car."
Marilyn Bernard, a coder with the medical records department, began her career with the hospital on Sept. 28, 1954. She remembers that the Sunday chicken dinners, still served at O'Bleness, had their beginnings at Sheltering Arms. "When I first started working at the hospital our meals in the cafeteria were free," Bernard said. "The food was always very good." Bernard worked in admitting at Sheltering Arms and she agreed that employees did a little bit of everything. "Besides our regular duties we would even watch people's children and call taxis for them."
By the mid-'50s the hospital began to seem inadequate. Despite additions, much was lacking. For example, there were no facilities specifically for pediatrics. The emergency room was one small room in the basement. Doctors making rounds and nurses on duty responded to emergencies, which were still brought to the hospital by private ambulance, or even hearses. X-ray facilities were also located in the basement, where, according to then X-ray technician Clifford (Skip) Young—who is now vice president of clinical services—the floors flooded during hard rains. "We had to lay two-by-fours on the floor to walk on, and at one time it flooded so badly the X-ray machine shorted out," Young recalled. Young said the staff was also plagued by exhaust fumes from cars left running outside the basement windows. Parking was only available on the city streets.
Ruth Thompson, R.N., a nursing supervisor at O'Bleness, has worked for the hospital since 1954 when she started at Sheltering Arms as a registered nurse in obstetrics. She said lack of space was one problem faced by the staff at the old hospital.
"It (Sheltering Arms) was a very nice hospital, even though it was small. The staff gave very good nursing care and the community appreciated them. I think we outgrew it because we needed to progress and offer more services. At Sheltering Arms there was no space for progress."
Sprague said the doctors began discussing a solution. "Although the hospital was improving all the time, in 1960 the doctors decided it was too small," he said. "We met and talked about a new hospital. We had no idea where we would get the money."
During the decade of the '60s the money problem was solved as more than $3 million was raised. Planning for the new building commenced.Sheltering Arms' 1st Baby
Lucius (Duke) Coe Burson, Jr., grew up hearing the story that he was the first baby born at Sheltering Arms Hospital.
His mother, Mildred Opal Shields Burson, delivered him June 5, 1921. Attending the birth was Wiley T. Sprague, M.D., and Burson's aunt, Mozelle Stephenson Ralston.
Burson's father, Lucius Coe Burson, Sr., operated the Motion Picture Theatre in Athens, where his sister, Gladys Friess, played piano accompaniment for silent films. He was also involved in area automobile sales for many years.
Burson's mother, who died when he was 11 years old, was a telephone operator and a nurse. Burson taught industrial arts and was an athletic coach at area schools until 1973.Hospital benefactor left his mark
But Charles G. O'Bleness preferred a low profile
Charlie O'Bleness made every penny count, but because of his frugality and late-in-life generosity, the Athens community and Ohio University will benefit from his contributions for generations to come.
Despite the familiarity of his name, many people are either only vaguely aware or totally in the dark as to his identity. His name was given to O'Bleness Memorial Hospital and is enshrined in a lofty nook among the Ohio University academic rewards in the O'Bleness Chair of Economics.
Those born after 1960, or who moved to Athens in recent years, may not know what he did to amass a fortune, and how he left the harvest of his hard work and conservative business principles to help provide the community with a modern hospital and to further the academic goals of Ohio University.
(His formal name was Charles G. O'Bleness, but he answered more readily to "Charlie.")
Because the hospital bears his name, some assume he was a doctor who is honored by the community. Not so. O'Bleness was a banker who for many years accumulated both money and a reputation for being very close with a dollar. Anecdotes about his conservatism are many.
But they are matched by stories of his concern for those who needed a financial boost and his willingness to help them, while brushing aside any thanks. That concern included his hometown when in 1965 he made his initial contribution of a $750,000 trust to plant the seed for construction of a new hospital, which would replace the venerable, but totally inadequate, Sheltering Arms Hospital.
O'Bleness' original gift was matched by $1 million in Hill-Burton funds, which the federal government made available for hospital construction. Another $1.25 million was pledged locally by individuals, businesses and organizations in a massive fund drive. Later it was found the building costs would be $450,000 higher, making it necessary to raise more local money. It was then O'Bleness came forth with another $250,000 pledge, raising the total for the campaign to $1.7 million.
He was born in Athens on April 12, 1877. His boyhood home was on the site now occupied by John Calhoun Baker Center at East Union and College Streets. He graduated from Athens High School in 1894 and Ohio University in 1898.
It was while he was a player on Ohio University's first football team that O'Bleness' ability to organize people to a common cause and spend their money wisely became evident. He was also the team's business manager. Unofficially, the team had adopted blue and white as its colors, so O'Bleness set out to purchase jerseys with that combination. When he learned that blue and white jerseys were not available, but similar attire in green and white could be purchased at a good price, O'Bleness bought green and white jerseys. At the Monday chapel (which was required attendance for OU students), O'Bleness presented the green and white jerseys. He tried on one and the student body of about 144 voted to buy the uniforms, which O'Bleness had already secured. Today's OU athletes still wear those colors.
Following his graduation, O'Bleness worked in the newspaper and pottery fields before entering banking.
The Security Savings Bank was organized in March, 1905, by several Athens residents including O'Bleness' father, Henry. Charlie O'Bleness was named cashier and was elected bank president in 1937. The bank was in the structure now known as The Security Building on North Court Street.
Through the ensuing years O'Bleness kept a low profile in Athens, although he held memberships in lodge, civic and church organizations.
O'Bleness remained a bachelor until Oct. 5, 1963, when he married Elizabeth Mills, a long time friend. With her encouragement, he began distributing his accumulated wealth to worthy causes, including Ohio University and the drive for a new hospital.
When he financed the Charles G. O'Bleness Chair in Economics, he termed it his "witness to my faith in the university." Although no figures were announced, it was known at that time that the minimum amount to establish a named professorhip was $500,000.
He was named to the board of trustees of the Ohio University Fund in 1959 and was honored by the university in 1962 as recipient of the Alumni Association Certificate of Merit. At the same time, he received a Varsity "O" since the athletic organization was not in existence when he was a football player.
When plans were announced in 1965 for construction of a new hospital, he established the trust fund of $750,000, increasing the amount to $1 million in March 1967.
Three men who were associated with O'Bleness, both as friends and in financial activities, recall him as a strong individualist who left a favorable mark on his alma mater and community.
Joseph Yanity, an Athens attorney, was the Sheltering Arms Hospital Foundation legal counsel and a new trustee when O'Bleness made his contributions. Yanity remembers O'Bleness as "very conservative." He added, "He would help people he felt needed help."
That thought was echoed by James Anastas, retired Athens businessman and active in fund raising projects at O'Bleness. Anastas recalls when he was seeking financial aid to purchase a tavern in Athens and O'Bleness gave him the help he needed and launched him on a business career.
"I had applied for a secured loan at two local banks and was rejected," Anastas related. "I went to see Mr. O'Bleness and he gave me the loan I needed. He had faith in me. He was frugal, but he was also generous."
John Jones, retired Athens businessman and former hospital board member, worked many hours with O'Bleness in arranging financial contributions. He summed up O'Bleness' contributions when he said:
"He was the catalyst who made it all possible."A new hospital is conceived
The community unites
The vision of the new hospital to be built in Athens was shared by many—doctors, community leaders and people who lived throughout the area.
As with most shared visions, many different versions of a new hospital were foreseen. Businessman Fred Beasley, for example, visualized the new building as being of a brick exterior, and he offered to donate all the brick. One artist's conception—used on a campaign brochure—shows a five-story building of brick.
But most importantly, the community maintained a unified sense of purpose, and that is the drive that carried the project from beginning to end. By November 1962, the hospital architectural firm of Hewitt and Royer was hired to prepare a survey and master plan. As many as 18 sites were considered at one time, with the present location being singled out because of its accessibility and because it is close to city services and to Ohio University. The land, which regularly flooded before the Hocking River rechannelization was completed in 1970, was given to the hospital by the university.
Where the money would come from was solved by a combination of community generosity and federal funding.
John Jones, who was a member of the Sheltering Arms Foundation during the mid-'60s and is an adviser of the Charles G. O'Bleness Foundation, remembers when Charles G. O'Bleness offered to help.
"In 1965 Mr. O'Bleness pledged $750,000," Jones said. "There was a meeting at Baker Center to announce Mr. O'Bleness' gift, which helped get the community involved." The conditions of the trust were that $25,000 would be paid into the hospital fund each year until a total of $750,000 was paid.
According to "History of the Sheltering Arms Hospital" by Clark E. Williams, O'Bleness' feelings about helping the community build a new hospital were included in a letter to Dwight Rutherford, chairman of the board of trustees of the Sheltering Arms Hospital Foundation: "A new and larger hospital will be of everlasting betterment and comfort to all the people. I have lived a long life in this Athens community and what success I have enjoyed has been the result of the confidence placed in me by its people. (The trust can be considered) as an expression of my gratitude for a certain degree of success, a wealth of friends and many happy memories."
A major fundraising campaign was launched in 1966, with Fred Beasley as general chairman and Arthur Kasler as treasurer. During the next few months pledges totaling $1.7 million were received, including a pledge of $125,000 from the physicians of the Sheltering Arms medical staff and a pledge of $25,000 from the hospital Guild. A Hill-Burton grant matched every $2 raised in the community with one federal grant dollar—eventually a total of $1.67 million was awarded. In February 1970, a few months before the hospital opened, a $500,450 grant was received from the Appalachia Regional Commission.
Charles O'Bleness also pledged an additional $250,000 to the building fund drive, although he died before that pledge was executed. According to Jones, the foundation trustees over a period of time have honored that pledge. "The O'Bleness Foundation has contributed $1.5 million to date and another $250,000 is currently being paid to the hospital's capital campaign over the next five years," Jones said.
G. Kenner Bush, publisher of The Athens Messenger, was an associate general chairman of the capital campaign for the new hospital. He worked with Dwight Rutherford and Blaine Goldsberry, M.D., in 1962 in assessing a location for the new hospital. Bush was asked to join the Sheltering Arms Hospital Foundation board in 1968.
"That was a very exciting time for Athens," Bush said. "The highway bypass, river rechannelization and a new hospital were all being worked on at the same time. We had taken on what seemed like a huge debt. We were gambling that we could make the transition from a very small community medical life into a totally new facility, which would be heavily in debt. We were trying to figure out how we were going to generate the kind of health care services that would be necessary to pay for it.
"We had a very small local medical staff. There were no young doctors at all. (In 1965 it had been 15 years since the last new doctor, Charles F. Jividen, M.D., had arrived in town). In order to make the transition from Sheltering Arms Hospital to a major new medical facility we had to have a significant number of new physicians. We could not service that debt without a certain number of patients and health services, and we had to find the staff to make that happen. It took awhile, but it happened."
Ground was broken for the hospital in December 1967. Turning the first shovels of dirt were three youngsters—Scott Evans, Tamela Johnston and Nancy Stacy. Two years earlier the three children had sold paper tablets to raise $5 for the fund drive.
Edward Sprague, M.D., said the plans for a 125-bed hospital were meant to allow for future growth. "We didn't know if the new hospital would be big enough," Sprague said. "We planned a three-floor hospital, but we wanted to build the foundation strong enough to add on for a seven-floor hospital, with 400 or 500 beds. We were really thinking ahead!"O'Bleness Memorial Hospital opens
Through the years, improvements meet the community's needs
Thousands of area residents and business people had donated time and money to seeing a new hospital become a reality. Sadly, J.R. Sprague, M.D., and Charles O'Bleness both died in 1969, only a year from seeing the hospital opened.
In an editorial in The Athens Messenger (July 12, 1970) Blaine R. Goldsberry, M.D., who was chief of the hospital's medical staff from 1957 until 1969, and Dwight Rutherford, who was elected to the Sheltering Arms Hospital Foundation board of trustees in 1957 and was the board's chairman from 1962 until 1969, were both credited with dedication and persistence in seeing the hospital project to fruition.
Goldsberry and Rutherford, as well as O'Bleness' widow, Elizabeth, were present at the opening ceremony for the newly named O'Bleness Memorial Hospital on July 27, 1970.
Five days later 28 adults and four infants were transferred by private ambulances from the old Sheltering Arms Hospital to O'Bleness. Michael and Kathy Rosser were the parents of the first baby, daughter Tanya, who was born July 28. Sheltering Arms would be vacant until it was renovated as senior citizen housing in 1982.
To honor doctors who had long been involved in the hospital, three areas carry their names. They include: the T. H. Morgan Memorial Surgical Suite; the John R. Sprague Memorial Obstetrical Suite; and the Blaine R. Goldsberry Memorial Radiological Center.
Construction of O'Bleness Hospital exceeded the original cost estimate of $3 million by $1.5 million. Although the community had contributed admirably to the cause, a debt of almost $2 million remained, and annual debt payments were about $200,000. It was clear that community involvement would need to be ongoing.
James Anastas, a retired businessman who was involved with the 1966 capital campaign as individual gifts division vice chairman, remembers how the annual fund drive began.
"In 1972 Earl Bridgewater called a meeting of a number of business people to discuss equipment and other needs for the hospital," Anastas remembered. "I said, 'What we need is an annual fund drive.' Well, Earl came to me the next day and asked me to be the chair of the first fund drive, and I accepted. We raised over $100,000. I've never missed a year since. The first two or three years I was asked by hospital administrator, James Boyce, to be a senior mentor and help the other chairs get started. We had to educate people that when you give money to a hospital, it's an investment in your life."
Opening the doors to the new O'Bleness Hospital didn't mean that the work was finished. Clarence Nelson, who retired as director of plant operations last year, recalled the first months in the new building.
"I had been hired in 1970 to oversee final stages of the new hospital construction," Nelson said. "Even after we opened, there were many problems to resolve." Nelson remembered, for example, that there wasn't enough money to buy tile to cover the concrete stairways, so they "borrowed" tile that was intended for a part of the third floor that wouldn't be opened until later.
During Nelson's quarter-century at the hospital he was involved with many changes and additions. In 1980, Nelson planned and supervised building the basement rooms, which had been left unfinished during the facility's first decade. The only entrance had previously been a tunnel from the outside. "The first thing we did was open up a stairway in an existing vacant elevator shaft," Nelson said. Later another stairway was added and the elevator was extended down a floor. The $145,000 project involved renovation of 5,553 square feet and was completed in August 1981.
Opening up the basement area for conference rooms and storage facilities freed up the third floor area for a new six-bed intensive care unit, which was opened in January 1982. The new unit featured an open design that allowed staff a direct view of patients and included new heart monitors.
Other major projects over the years included adding onto the building to house a computerized tomography (CT) scanning unit (summer 1983), renovating the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) room (January 1992), creating a cafeteria patio and shelter (spring 1993), opening the Betty G. (Morgan) Anastas waiting area (August 1993) and a cardiovascular laboratory (spring 1992).
Major additions of new equipment throughout the years further upgraded and added services, allowing the hospital to keep pace with major technological advances in diagnostic capabilities. Some purchases included: radiology, anesthesia, urology, mammography, ultrasound and cardiac monitoring equipment, a variety of surgical lasers and endoscopes.
Complementing facility and equipment additions, numerous services were made available to the community as specialized physicians joined the O'Bleness active medical staff. These specialties are available: anesthesiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, gastroenterology, gynecology, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, otorhinolaryngology, pathology, pediatrics, psychiatry, radiology, surgery and urology.
At the close of its first two decades of operation the hospital was poised for a new era of growth and health care service to the community.Modernization prepares for the future
Recently a visitor to O'Bleness who had been a nurse there several years ago exclaimed in surprise as she entered the parking area and saw the "new" hospital. She said she didn't recognize it at all as the same place, and a tour of the interior impressed her similarly. So it must be with other visitors who weren't around during the nearly three years (October 1993 to spring 1996) of modernization and renovation of the hospital.
As with the original construction of O'Bleness Memorial Hospital, several years of planning went into the $11 million project that has upgraded both facilities and services. The hospital doubled the size of the first floor, adding 37,547 square feet of new building, in addition to renovating 17,816 square feet of the existing structure. The sale of tax-exempt revenue bonds and the use of existing hospital reserves are financing the majority of the project. A major fund raising effort in 1994-95, chaired by James Anastas, raised $1.4 million to finance the remainder of expenses.
The new medical office building, attached to the west end, provides an additional 10,000 square feet. The $1.4 million facility was financed entirely from hospital cash reserves and is leased to area physicians.
New hospital construction included:
An emergency department with five times the space of the old department, including urgent care service.
A new patient registration center that provides increased patient privacy.
New and larger operating rooms.
A new, larger laboratory.
A new gift shop and volunteer services area.
New business offices, including medical records department offices.
New patient and visitor waiting areas.
Renovation provided for:
A new first-floor outpatient center, conveniently located near operating rooms.
An entirely remodeled surgical department, including a new recovery room, staff areas and new equipment.
A new visitor waiting area for surgical patients' families.
A larger radiology department.
Hand-in-hand with facility upgrades are improvements in services. A new computer system throughout the hospital has improved admissions, medical records and billing procedures. The urgent care service allows patients with less-acute problems to be cared for more quickly. The process for patients in the new outpatient center is streamlined so that a patient never has to leave the first floor. Access for individuals with disabilities is provided throughout the hospital.
Remodeling is still ongoing, as patient rooms receive new patient care equipment, as well as new floor and wall coverings. Plans to renovate the perinatal (maternity) unit include adding more birthing rooms and redesigning patient rooms.
Richard Castrop, hospital president since 1979, said that O'Bleness staff and administrators are committed to providing services in a modern, well-maintained facility and to keeping pace with the rapid advances in medical technology while meeting patients' needs for privacy, convenience and high quality care.
"Consistent with its role as a progressive and caring community hospital, O'Bleness Memorial Hospital continues to work toward its fundamental mission of delivering superior health care at a cost that represents value to the community—a heritage of health care that will continue into tomorrow," Castrop said.Guild observes 35th year
This year marks another milestone—the 35th anniversary of the founding of a volunteer organization that provides funds and services to the hospital.
The group that is known today as the Guild of O'Bleness Memorial Hospital was started in 1961 before there was an O'Bleness Hospital, by Mrs. Clarke (Helen) Dailey. She presented to the board of trustees of Sheltering Arms Hospital a proposal for establishing the organization. The first officers were Mrs. Gerald Kyle, president, and Mrs. Frank Rauch Jr., vice president.
These women organized a series of fundraising events that have survived from Sheltering Arms Hospital to its successor, O'Bleness Memorial Hospital. For a period of time, the Guild also coordinated the volunteer programs in the hospital. Since the Guild started keeping records, it has spent nearly $120,000 to benefit the hospital. A listing of equipment purchases would require pages, but they parallel the hospital's expansion. They range from a datascope purchased in 1973 for $2,705 to 70 blood pressure units costing $3,867 in 1978. Other purchases include an isolette incubator costing $4,761 in 1981, to $6,068 for a bedside EKG monitor and other emergency room equipment in 1992.
The Guild's pledge of $150,000 to the O'Bleness Capital Campaign has been designated to the emergency department, as was its pledge of $25,000 to the original building fund campaign in 1966.
One of its most popular events is the annual geranium sale, started in 1965 by the late Elizabeth Beatty and Maria Cherrington, the Grover sisters. They provided cuttings from their personal geranium plants, plus a few from friends. The first effort earned about $350.
75 Years of hospital care in the Athens community
About This Publication
Any historical endeavor involves dozens of sources. Some of the best and most valuable sources are those people who lend
their time and memories. This brief listing is in appreciation for the generosity of those who helped give life to this
history of Sheltering Arms Hospital/O'Bleness Memorial Hospital.
- Edward A. (Ted) Sprague, M.D.
- Ruth Thompson, R.N.
- G. Kenner Bush
- Lucius Coe Burson, Jr.
- John and Verda Jones
- Florence Hooe
- William H. Allen Jr., M.D.
- Jenny Riley, R.N.
- Clarence Nelson
- Helen Ledford, R.N.
- James Anastas
- C. E. (Skip) Young
- Doris Burson, R.N.
- Joy Boals
- Marilyn Bernard
- Martha Bitters
- Richard F. Castrop
- Athens County Historical Society and Museum
- History of the Sheltering Arms Hospital by Clark E. Williams
- Getting to Know Athens County by Elizabeth Beatty Grover and Marjorie Stone
- The Athens Messenger and senior writer Roy Cross
May 1996
