Adventist Health Feather River, also known as Feather River Hospital, is a 101-bed

acute care Acute care is a branch of secondary health care where a patient receives active but short-term treatment for a severe injury or episode of illness, an urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery.Alberta Health ServicesAcute care.Acces ...

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

located in the town of

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...

, in

Butte County, California Butte County () is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of California. In the 2020 census, its population was 211,632. The county seat is Oroville. Butte County comprises the Chico, CA metropolitan statistical area. It is ...

, with a wide array of outpatient departments and services designed to meet the health care needs of Paradise, Magalia, and neighboring communities. It was severely damaged in the November 2018

Camp Fire A campfire is a fire at a campsite that provides light and warmth, and heat for cooking. It can also serve as a beacon, and an insect and predator deterrent. Established campgrounds often provide a stone or steel fire ring for safety. Campfires ...

and is currently closed.

History

In 1946, Dr. Merritt C. Horning envisioned building a “total health center” in Paradise, California. Dr. Horning shared this vision with three of his colleagues: Dr. Dean Hoiland, Dr. C.C. Landis and Dr. Glenn Blackwelder. These men, along with other community leaders, purchased from Paradise Irrigation District for the price of back taxes – $3,500. Within the next few years, additional acreage was acquired throughout several purchases, eventually totaling . Labor and building materials were largely acquired through donations and volunteers.History
/ref> Construction was scheduled to begin in April 1948, however, at the time funding was not available to build surgical and obstetrical units. When applying to the State of California for an operating license, the hospital board learned that the hospital did not qualify for a license unless it had a surgical unit. Dr. Horning contacted a friend, the state director of public health, and soon a new hospital classification was created to accommodate the project. Within days, Feather River received a license to operate as an acute medical facility containing 18 beds and officially opened in 1950. Feather River has experienced three “firsts” in their geographical region. It was the only hospital in the area to train nurse assistants; they pioneered the teen volunteer program of candystripers and handystripers, and the facility was the first public building in Butte County to prohibit smoking. In 1952, a surgery unit was added and by the end of the decade, a new wing also had been completed. More space was soon needed, so in 1964 a new food service department and a physician's office building was added. Four years later, in 1968, the construction of a new 150-bed hospital was completed. This facility is located uphill from the original building which now houses the hospital's Health Center. The hospital founders and trustees desired to ensure the facility's long-term mission as an

Adventist Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (or the "Second Advent") of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher Wil ...

health care center and so in 1960 they entrusted the hospital to the Northern California Conference of

Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...

. On January 8, 1973, Feather River joined

Adventist Health Adventist Health is a faith-based, nonprofit integrated health system serving more than 80 communities on the West Coast and in Hawaii. Founded on Seventh-day Adventist heritage and values, Adventist Health provides care in hospitals, clinics, ...

and became Adventist Health/Feather River Hospital. Feather River Hospital first closed in 2008, because of the Humboldt Fire. In 2017, the name was changed to Adventist Health Feather River. On November 8, 2018, Adventist Health Feather River was partially destroyed by the

. This fast moving wildfire propelled by high winds leveled a large portion of Paradise. This fire was the most destructive in California history.

2018 Camp Fire

Adventist Health Feather River was forced to evacuate after the fire jumped a road going to the hospital. Some people were trapped under Adventist Health Feather River in a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

until they could escape. Employees at Adventist Health Feather River evacuated 60 patients the morning of November 8, 2018. The patients were transported in ambulances, by

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

and employee vehicles to

Oroville Hospital Oroville Hospital provides health coverage to the City of Oroville. It is the main hospital for the city of Oroville, California. The building is the City of Oroville in Butte County. It is also a Level III trauma care center. The hospital was ...

Enloe Medical Center Enloe may refer to: *Enloe, Texas, an unincorporated community in Delta County *William G. Enloe High School, public high school in Raleigh, North Carolina * Enloe Dam and Powerplant, a powerplant in Okanogan County, Washington Persons with the s ...

, in

Chico Chico () means ''small'', ''boy'' or ''child'' in the Spanish language. It is also the nickname for Francisco in the Portuguese language (). Chico may refer to: Places *Chico, California, a city *Chico, Montana, an unincorporated community *Chic ...

and Orchard Hospital, in Gridley that very day.

2018 aftermath

Surrounding hospitals stepped up to take care of the patients that would normally be going to Adventist Health Feather River, the largest business in Paradise, which will not reopen until 2020, forcing 1,300 employees to be laid off or to relocate their employments at other hospitals and clinics in the area. Some employees have left the state to find work. The buildings that survived the fire include the hospital, the cancer center, the emergency department, the maternity ward, the outpatient surgery center and one clinic. The buildings that were destroyed include offices, clinics, cardiology building, radiology building and maintenance building.

Recovery

In October 2019, people gathered together at Adventist Health Feather River after Senate Bill 156 was approved by the state legislature. This allows the emergency room to operate without a hospital–the first in the history of the state of California.

Services

The services of Adventist Health Feather River were: Behavioral medicine,

treatment of cancer Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy (including immunotherapy such as monoclonal antibody therapy) and synthetic lethality, most commonly as a series of separate treatments (e.g. ...

cardiology Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart d ...

critical care medicine Intensive care medicine, also called critical care medicine, is a medical specialty that deals with seriously or critically ill patients who have, are at risk of, or are recovering from conditions that may be life-threatening. It includes pro ...

, diagnostic

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...

emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...

, GI laboratory, home health,

hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by ...

, outpatient medical offices,

home oxygen A portable oxygen concentrator (POC) is a device used to provide oxygen therapy to people that require greater oxygen concentrations than the levels of ambient air. It is similar to a home oxygen concentrator (OC), but is smaller in size and mor ...

medical imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to rev ...

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

, rural health center,

sleep medicine Sleep medicine is a medical specialty or subspecialty devoted to the diagnosis and therapy of sleep disturbances and sleep disorder, disorders. From the middle of the 20th century, research has provided increasing knowledge and answered many ...

surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

, and women's health. In 1999, Feather River became the first hospital in Northern California to house an Endoscopy Suite complete with voice activated, hands free surgical equipment. It was one of only four hospitals in the region with an anticoagulation clinic, and funded a wide range of

preventive treatment A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many differen ...

programs.

Awards

In 2018 Adventist Health Feather River won the Women's Choice Award and has also won four awards from Healthgrades.

References

External links

*
Nurse Describes Harrowing Hospital Evacuation of Patients During California Fires: 'We Had to Go'
People
Inside the Fiery Furnace: A Chaplain's Harrowing Story of Survival in Paradise
Time
Camp Fire: Nurse who helped evacuate patients recounts harrowing escape from wildfire
CBS THIS MORNING

YAHOO! LIFESTYLE *[https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2018/11/14/when-hell-moved-california-nurse-drove-through-fire-save-lives?noredirect=on When 'hell moved in,' a California nurse drove through fire to save lives] The Washington Post
'I thought I was gonna die right there': Nurse's harrowing escape from California wildfire
Abc News
Nurses fleeing fast-moving Camp Fire scramble to save patients-and themselves
NBC NEWS
The Latest: Fire Captain Says Wildfire Destroys Calif. Town
U.S. News
California wildfires: The day Paradise burned down
BBC News

INDEPENDENT {{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1950 Hospitals in California Adventist Health Buildings and structures in Butte County, California