Richmond Field Hospital
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The Kaiser Richmond Field Hospital was the first
Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...
Hospital and is a historic site resource of the city of
Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a Richmond, California City Council, city council.
,Resolution No.81-01
Richmond City Council, June 19, 2001, retrieved September 8, 2007 from City of Richmond website's records
and a
contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...
to
Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park is a United States national historical park located in Richmond, California, near San Francisco. The park preserves and interprets the legacy of the United States home front ...
, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. The hospital provided health services for surrounding communities until 1995 when it was replaced by the then state-of-the-art
Richmond Medical Center Kaiser Richmond Medical Center is a large Kaiser Permanente hospital in downtown Richmond, California which serves 77,000 members registered under its medical plans.
in downtown Richmond. The field hospital is now closed and remains in its original location in South Richmond along
Cutting Boulevard Cutting Boulevard is a major east–west arterial trunk road in the city of Richmond, California. History It is named after Henry Cutting, the founder of the Port of Richmond. It begins in the historic neighborhood of Point Richmond at the base ...
.


Background

More American workers died in Home Front accidents than US soldiers killed on
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
battlefields. This was true up to the
Battle of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norma ...
in June 1944.
Henry J. Kaiser Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882 – August 24, 1967) was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of ...
, owner of the
Richmond Shipyards The four Richmond Shipyards, in the city of Richmond, California, United States, were run by Permanente Metals and part of the Kaiser Shipyards. In World War II, Richmond built more ships than any other shipyard, turning out as many as three ships ...
, realized that only a healthy work force could meet the deadlines and construction needs of wartime America. He institutionalized a revolutionary idea, pre-paid medical care for workers, which soon expanded beyond workers. For many workers, this was the first time they had seen a doctor.


Hospital operations

The Kaiser Richmond Field Hospital for the Richmond Shipyards was financed by the U.S. Maritime Commission, and opened on August 10, 1942. Sponsored by Kaiser's Permanente Foundation, it was run by Medical Director Sidney R. Garfield, M.D. The Field Hospital served as the mid-level component of a three-tier medical care system that also included six well-equipped First Aid Stations at the individual shipyards, and the main Permanente Hospital in
Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
, where the most critical cases were treated. Together, these facilities served the employees of the Kaiser shipyards who had signed up for the Permanente Health Plan (commonly referred to as the "Kaiser Plan"), one of the country's first voluntary pre-paid medical plans, and a direct precursor to the
health maintenance organization In the United States, a health maintenance organization (HMO) is a medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee. It is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded healt ...
s (HMOs) defined by the federal HMO Act of 1973. By August 1944, 92.2 percent of all Richmond shipyard employees had joined the plan, the first voluntary group plan in the country to feature group medical practice, prepayment and substantial medical facilities on such a large scale. After the war ended, the Health Plan was expanded to include workers' families. By 1990,
Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...
was still the country's largest nonprofit HMO. National Park Superintendent Martha Lee stated that the hospital "was the center of the nation’s first prepaid health care system and was a precursor of today’s HMO’s ic"National Park Superintendent Martha Lee, on Richmond's Home Front National Historic Park
The Program, The Flywheel, retrieved September 8, 2007
In part due to wartime materials rationing, the Field Hospital is a single-story wood frame structure designed in a simple modernist mode. Originally intended for use primarily as an emergency facility, the Field Hospital opened with only 10 beds. Later additions increased its capacity to 160 beds by 1944. The Field Hospital operated as a Kaiser Permanente hospital until closing in 1995. Kaiser conducted its first medical research at the facility in 1942 and later at another site before abandoning animal research all together in favor of correlational studies in 1958.
by Robert Aquinas McNally, The Permanente Journal, Fall 2001, retrieved September 8, 2007


Current status

The site and its parcel officially entitled the Nystrom Tract Addition are owned by Masjeed Al-Noor. It was sold by Kaiser in the late 1990s, after the opening of the
Richmond Medical Center Kaiser Richmond Medical Center is a large Kaiser Permanente hospital in downtown Richmond, California which serves 77,000 members registered under its medical plans.
and converted to a
mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
that was shut down for dilapidated conditions in 2014 by the
Richmond Fire Department Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a city council.
, which caused accusations of racism by Richmond City Councilman Corky Boozé while the congregation began to meet in a tent according to
Richmond Confidential Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...
. In the summer of 2007 preliminary bus tours were begun with a new guideless model, which instead filled half of the bus with residents who spoke of their experiences from the time to put what are otherwise everyday streets for residents into a greater historical perspective. A Tour of Richmond’s WWII Historic Sites
Berkeley Daily Planet, by J. Douglas Allen-Taylor, May 5, 2006, retrieved September 8, 2007


Notes


External links


Google maps satellite view
notice X rudimentary helipad in adjacent parking lot. {{authority control Hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area Kaiser Permanente hospitals Buildings and structures in Richmond, California Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park Hospital buildings completed in 1942 Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California Historic district contributing properties in California National Register of Historic Places in Richmond, California 1942 establishments in California