About Us

History of CVMC

• In 1895, Homer W. Heaton founded Heaton Hospital in Montpelier, Vermont's capital city.
  
  
• In the neighboring town of Barre, Frank E. Langley and a group of community leaders organized in 1904 “to maintain a public hospital, not for profit, in the City of Barre.” Barre City Hospital opened three years later.
  
  
• By 1960, there were only 37 physicians in Washington County, down from a high of 58 in 1885. The physicians of Barre and Montpelier, along with other community leaders, revived talks of merging the two hospitals as a way of preserving and expanding community-based medical care for central Vermonters.
  
  
• By March of 1961, the Medical Staffs from Heaton Hospital and Barre City Hospital had voted to reciprocate staff privileges. This action was quickly followed by the State Health Commission's recommendation that the two hospitals merge to eliminate duplication and provide a broader range of health care services to its citizens. Less than six months later, the Medical Staff of Mayo Memorial Hospital, a small 29-bed hospital located 15 miles to the south voted to join in the merger discussions.
  
  
• In 1963, Central Vermont Medical Center (CVMC) was incorporated. Five years and nearly $5.5 million later, construction was completed. The new 175-bed hospital combined the Boards of Directors and the Medical Staffs of Barre City Hospital and Heaton Hospital. Also integrated were Mayo Memorial Hospital's physicians and the local Osteopathic physicians.
  
  
• In August 1968, CVH opened its doors on a beautiful 70-acre site in Berlin under the direction of Joel Walker, the former administrator of Barre City Hospital. Harold F. Shea, assumed the role of President, Board of Trustees of the Central Vermont Medical Center (CVMC), Parent Corporation to the hospital. Governor Philip Hoff and Vermont's senior US Senator, George D. Aiken, presided at the opening ceremonies, which were attended by hundreds of well-wishers. The festivities ran as the lead story in the local Times-Argus on August 12, 1968.
  
  
• The new hospital employed 395 local residents, making it one of the largest employers in the area. In its first year in operation, the hospital experienced an 83% occupancy rate and 949 births. CVH discharged 7,600 patients, saw over 9,000 people in the Emergency Room, provided over 288,000 hours of nursing care, conducted over 88,000 laboratory tests and extended more than $120,000 in charity care. The cost for a semi-private room was $40 a day.
  
  
• In 1993, CVMC extended the commitment they had made in the 1970s to provide long-term care locally by opening Woodridge. This Nursing Home was built on the hospital's grounds to further ensure the availability of convenient, quality long-term care in a home-like environment.
  
  
• In 1996, CVMC became part of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Alliance, a regional healthcare system now comprised of 12 organizations. This affiliation has strengthened the local hospital's ability to provide high quality, comprehensive care close to home while having the commitment and support of a larger organization behind it.
  
  
• State approval to undergo a major modernization and expansion program at CVMC was given approval in 2005. This project will result in new and much needed Operating Room space and a New Birthing Center as well as reorganized space for the efficient delivery of the growing array of outpatient services. Construction is expected to be complete in 2007.
  
  
• Today, CVMC operates a hospital facility with 122 licensed beds, serves a population of 66,000, and employs nearly 1,100 people. More than 25,000 patients are seen annually in CVMC's Emergency Department and more than 164,000 outpatient treatments including over 3,000 outpatient surgeries are provided. The Medical Center boasts a medical staff of nearly 120 physicians representing a wide range of primary and specialty services. Twenty-five of these physicians are now employed by the hospital. Today, CVMC and its Medical Staff work in close collaboration with other health care providers in the region to maximize locally available health services.