Yakima's First Hospital is Still a Hospital of Firsts

1891-2009: Celebrating 118 years of compassionate care in the Yakima Valley

On August 2, 1891 the Sisters of Charity of Providence agreed to take care of sick government workers and the residents of Yakima, thus creating Yakima's first and only hospital, a distinction that was held for more than 59 years.

The first hospital was a 7 room house on the corner of Yakima and Naches Avenues. The hospital cared for 37 patients the first year, and within a year the hospital moved to a larger building to keep up with the capacity.

St. Elizabeth's grew from performing their first surgery on a kitchen table in the 1890s to opening the first Coronary Care Unit in the state in the 1960s and the region's first comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation facility in the 1980s. In 1994 St. Elizabeth Medical Center became Providence Yakima Medical Center, and in 2003 the name waschanged to Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center.

Today, Yakima Regional is still leading the way in cutting-edge care for Central Washington. In the past six years, more than 20 million dollars in capital and equipment improvements have been completed. Yakima Regional is home to the only 64-slice CT scanner in Central Washington, and has the most advanced MRI Scanner in the Yakima Valley. We are still the only hospital in the valley with life-saving open-heart surgery capabilities, elective angioplasty and state-of-the-art neurosurgery.

With a commitment to experience, compassion and technology, we hope you will become part of our history by choosing Yakima Regional for all of your healthcare needs.