Yampa Valley Medical Center Foundation - CG.org

Background Statement

Many community-spirited individuals have helped shape the history of health care in Steamboat Springs. None was more influential than Frederick E. Willett, M.D., who was involved with the town's first public hospital in 1914.

In 1921, Dr. Willett opened a new hospital in a converted apartment building on 7th & Aspen. Twenty-five years later, Dr. Willett and the community saw the need for a new structure and a non-profit community organization to run it.

In August 1946, the Steamboat Springs Hospital Association elected a Board of Directors that supervised site selection, design, construction and fundraising. Dr. Willett donated his hospital building to the cause and it was purchased by the school district. The building served as the high school and junior high band room as well as the Seventh Street Playhouse for many years before being torn down in 2005.

Routt County Memorial Hospital was dedicated on August 13, 1950.

The 1960s saw the opening of the Steamboat Ski Area and a need to increase hospital services. A remodel in the early 1970s added outpatient treatment space.

The 1970s brought rapid changes, construction of a major addition and enhanced emergency medical services. The hospital was renamed Routt Memorial Hospital to clarify its private, non-tax based status. In 1979, the community asked the hospital to take over the adjacent nursing home which was renamed Routt Memorial Extended Care Center.

GrandKids Child Care Center opened within Routt Memorial Extended Care Center in November 1981, bringing generations closer together and providing a needed community services. It was the first childcare center to be located inside a skilled nursing facility in the state of Colorado.

By 1992, the need for a larger hospital was obvious. Planning and fund-raising began for a new medical center and campus on a centrally located 46-acre site near the Steamboat Ski Area. A generous community donated more than $6 million.

Groundbreaking for Yampa Valley Medical Center was held in February 1998, and the new hospital opened on Nov. 21, 1999. Other campus buildings, a medical office building, the Doak Walker Care Center and a new GrandKids Child Care Center, were completed in 2000.

In 2001, the Yampa Valley Medical Center Foundation was established to support the health care services of Yampa Valley Medical Center for the communities it serves.

A $13 million expansion and renovation was completed in 2009 that doubled the size of the Family Birth Place, created a new digital mammography suite and minor procedure area, and added much-needed space to surgical services and other departments.

The Doak Walker Care Center relocated to the new Casey's Pond Senior Living campus in 2013, with inter-generational activities continuing with GrandKids.

In 2014, thanks to a generous donation, the Gloria Gossard Breast Care Center opened, providing comprehensive breast health care.

The Outpatient Pavilion opened in 2016, with the relocation of YampaCare For Women and the Gloria Gossard Breast Care Center.

In February 2017, the Jan Bishop Cancer Center opened on the second floor of the Outpatient Pavilion, thanks in part to $3.7 million in funds raised by the Yampa Valley Medical Center Foundation.

On Sept. 1, 2017, Yampa Valley Medical Center joined the UCHealth family of hospitals and clinics. Now known as UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center, YVMC continues to grow as a hub of advanced care for patients throughout

the Yampa Valley and northwest Colorado.