(Photo above: St. Charles Prineville)
Generous donations from the Pioneer Memorial Hospital Residual Board and the Prineville Hospital Foundation have resulted in exciting news for the Prineville and Crook County communities.
After the sale of the former hospital building this summer, the residual board voted to donate $1 million to the Oregon Community Foundation to administer a scholarship to Crook County high school graduates and GED recipients interested in pursuing health care careers. The scholarship funds will also be available to adults who have lived in Crook County for at least five years who are interested in going back to school to pursue or advance careers in a health care-related field.
“We thought it was a great way to honor the people that had, for so many years, contributed to Pioneer Memorial Hospital,” said Brian Barney, chairman of the PMH Residual Board. “That was why we created it. It is a legacy to PMH and the community.”
Details on how to apply for the scholarships will be available from the Oregon Community Foundation in coming months.
In addition, the board and the Prineville Hospital Foundation board voted to donate their remaining funds to the expansion of health care services at the St. Charles Prineville facility. Approximately $3.5 million will go toward the expansion of the St. Charles Family Care clinic in Prineville.
“Prineville Hospital Foundation is proud to have been the steward of this community’s donations since the founding of Prineville’s hospital. Delivery of these funds now for expansion of our current hospital is the culmination of many months of deliberation and debate amongst the PHF board members over best use of the gifts entrusted to us,” said Bobbi Brooks, president of PHF. “Thank you to our local medical providers, St. Charles Health System and St. Charles Foundation for creating an outstanding plan; thank you Pioneer Memorial Hospital Residual Board for its partnership and most importantly, thank you to this community for its decades of generous gifts for the sole purpose of keeping health care in Crook County vital and ever improving.”
The expansion will include space for additional visiting specialists and make the outpatient rehabilitation area larger as well. The new clinic space will be designed so that it can potentially function as an urgent care center in the future.
“All of the dollars for this project are coming from the Pioneer Memorial Hospital and Prineville Hospital Foundation boards,” said John Bishop, president of St. Charles Prineville and St. Charles Madras. “We are in the planning phase to determine what is best for the community with the goal of creating greater access to care.”
In addition to the $3.5 million, about $500,000 will be reserved for the recruitment and retention of new medical providers to the Prineville clinic.
“We are so grateful to the Pioneer Memorial Hospital and the Prineville Hospital Foundation boards – and to the many community members who have made donations through the years to support these two entities,” said Joe Sluka, president and CEO of St. Charles Health System. “Your generosity will ensure that Crook County residents have access to the care they need and the providers to partner with them in their health well into the future.”
www.stcharleshealthcare.org
