Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial History
The Newaygo County General Hospital Association, doing business as Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial, has been nationally recognized as one of the Top 100 Hospitals in the country four times – the most recent being in 2007.
Gerber Memorial Hospital received this award for providing clinical excellence and efficient, quality care. The hospital also received the honor of being named as one of the country's 100 Top Orthopedic Hospitals.
Community-Directed Healthcare
Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial is a community-directed healthcare system serving the people of Newaygo County and its surrounding area. The system is anchored by a 77-bed not-for-profit hospital, Gerber Memorial, located in Fremont, Michigan, forty-five (45) miles north of Grand Rapids. Rural Newaygo County has a population of 53,000 and growing.
Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial has been a mainstay in Newaygo County for over 90 years. In 1918, the children of Joseph and Agnes Gerber (the namesake of the Gerber Products Company) gave the family home at 212 Maple Street in Fremont, Michigan, to the community as a memorial to their parents. They asked that it be used "for the relief of pain and suffering." The legacy of Gerber Memorial Hospital had begun.
Legacy of Caring
It is a legacy of caring, from its modest beginning to the modern facility that reaches out into an ever-expanding community -- Newaygo County and its surrounding area. As the community's needs increased, the hospital underwent several expansion programs.
In 1953, a new facility with 44 beds was added to the hospital complex. It marked the advent of many new concepts in health care that greatly expanded the hospital's services.
A one-story addition in 1968 highlighted Gerber Memorial Hospital's first 50 years of services. Many areas of the existing hospital were redesigned and expanded.
The hospital climaxed a $1 million building program in 1971 with the dedication of a three-story addition -- the East Wing. It was built on the site of the hospital's very beginnings, the Gerber home, which was torn down in 1969. The East Wing was of major benefit to the community, offering a new Intensive Care and Coronary Care Unit complete with electronic cardiac monitoring systems and staffed with specially trained nursing personnel.
The hospital began a $2.49 million expansion and renovation in 1982. The first phase of construction was a three-story wing at the north end of the hospital -- room for a surgery suite, the cardio-pulmonary department, offices and employee locker rooms. A major renovation and relocation of many hospital departments also was included in the project.
Outpatient Specialty Services
In 1989 the Outpatient Specialty Services department was established in the former Administrative Suite and Boardroom. As the hospital continued to grow, it purchased the Fremont Medical Center building adjacent to the hospital in 1992, and added a $1.6 million addition to it in 1993, in order to accommodate additional physicians coming into the area. During 1991-1993, the hospital also initiated a Master Site Development Plan and began purchasing real estate directly to the west of its Sullivan Street location for future growth.
Vision 2000
Expansion of the hospital campus continued with the Vision 2000 construction and renovation project in 1997.
The $8 million dollar project upgraded and expanded the hospital in order to meet the diverse medical demands of the growing Newaygo County community for accessible, affordable quality health care.
The project's key components include:
- more room for patients, staff and equipment in the Emergency area;
- modern labor and delivery rooms where the family can participate in the warmth of the delivery of new life in the Family Birth Center;
- an expanded and upgraded radiology department;
- a new laboratory;
- and electrical and mechanical upgrades for the entire physical plant.
The Vision 2000 project was funded through the generous support and donations from the Newaygo County community including: Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial patients, businesses, associates, physicians, Board members, Administration, vendors, area organizations, The Fremont Area Foundation and The Gerber Foundation.
There has been much progress as well as many challenges for the hospital over the many decades of its service to the community.
Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial – in 2004 - completed an expansion and renovation campaign called “Phase II”. The $10.9 million campaign, completed in 2004, increased surgery capacity; enhanced emergency, maternity and diagnostic imaging; developed women’s services and provided additional space for patient comfort and confidentiality.
Wellness and Prevention
In 2007 Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial initiated its new goal of improving the health of the community by creating Tamarac, The Center for Health and Well-Being. Tamarac embodied all that the new vision meant: a place for the community to become healthy. It became a place where trusted, professional guides encouraged and supported each and every individual’s desire to become healthier, in mind, body and spirit. It is a medical wellness center, not just a fitness club, so that those arriving at its doors following surgery or trauma will first be rehabilitated, then transitioned to a world of maintaining and enhancing the therapeutic work that had already been accomplished. It has become a place where those wishing to live a fuller, longer life will find the tools and expertise to help them on their journey. It has, ultimately, become a gathering place for people to enjoy the benefits of their efforts and celebrate with each other the achievement of goals.
Complete Range of Clinical Services
Gerber Memorial offers a complete range of clinical services, including many innovative services often found only at large urban facilities for a continuum of care including:
The Newaygo Medical Center, in Newaygo, Michigan where both Pine Medical (a multi-specialty group practice) has a satellite family practice office, and Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial provides wellness, rehabilitation, x-ray and laboratory services; Family practice offices in both Hesperia, and Grant, and an Internal Medicine and Pediatrics office on Main Street in Fremont.
The following hospital services:
The following diagnostic services:
The following outpatient services:
- cardiac rehabilitation
- adult psychiatric
- cancer treatment
- sleep disorder clinic
Educational Services:
- diabetes self-management
- nutrition counseling
- perinatal educational classes
-early pregnancy classes
-expectant parent classes
-labor review for mothers who have previously delivered
-preadmission education
-infant and child CPR
-breastfeeding support
-Continu-Care home health services
Personal Fitness programs in Newaygo and at Tamarac in Fremont
Rehabilitation services [Rehab Page]
- occupational therapy
- physical therapy
- speech therapy
- sports medicine
Seniors Programming
- Alzheimer's Support group
- Geriatric Assessment Program/services
- Foot Clinic
Visiting Medical Specialists [Specialty Services Page]
- Cardiology
- ears/nose/throat
- gastroenterology
- hematology
- oncology (Cancer Treatment)
- ophthalmology
- plastic and reconstructive surgery
- podiatry
- urology
- vascular surgery
- neurology
- pathology
In-county physicians specializing in:
- Family Practice
- Internal Medicine
- Pediatrics
- Orthopedics
- General Surgery
- Radiology
- Obstetrics/Gynecology
[Spectrum Health gerber Memorial Medical Centers]
Occupational Health Services for local businesses.
Led by dozens of active and associate physicians, consultants, and mid-level practitioners (Podiatrists, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists), Gerber strives to provide the best in healthcare as well as demonstrating its commitment to the community as a good neighbor.
Our family physicians and specialists with local offices can refer their patients to an outstanding network of local regional medical facilities. We are fortunate to have the benefits of these and many other expanding health care providers and facilities, all dedicated to your good health.
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