History

Mid-Columbia Medical Center was founded by local residents for local residents

1901: Hospital established in the Rinehart family home by pioneers Dr. Belle Cooper Rinehart and Dr. Mary Powell Johnson.

1903: Rinehart family home is expanded to enlarge the hospital that becomes known as The Dalles Hospital.

1959: The Dalles Hospital moves into the new facility built on 19th Street and funded by donations from local residents, businesses, physicians and hospital staff.

1979: Twenty years after being built, the 19th Street facility is expanded by 20,000 square feet to accommodate more patients, more beds and other improvements.

1982: Hospital begins offering on-site childcare.

1983: Name is changed to Mid-Columbia Medical Center to more accurately reflect its emergence as a regional resource for comprehensive healthcare.

1983: The Mid-Columbia Health Foundation is established to provide financial support to MCMC and help ensure local residents have access to quality healthcare close to home.

1992: MCMC becomes the first hospital in the nation to implement housewide the Planetree philosophy of patient care, which emphasizes the need to address a person’s intellectual, environmental, emotional and spiritual concerns in addition to their physical needs.

2001: MCMC opens Celilo Cancer Center, the only comprehensive cancer center in the Gorge.

2009: Water’s Edge is opened on Lone Pine Blvd., featuring a medical fitness center and nontraditional therapies.

2016: MCMC expands into Hood River to increase the availability of health care services in the Gorge.

2018: MCMC named a Top Workplace by The Oregonian, based entirely on employee feedback.

2019: MCMC adds 3D mammography, the latest technology in breast cancer detection, to its imaging services.

2020: In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, MCMC opens the region’s only Immediate Care Center, a walk-in clinic for urgently needed care.

2021: MCMC partners with Adventist Health Northwest Heart Center to bring nationally recognized cardiovascular services to The Dalles.

2023: MCMC becomes Adventist Health Columbia Gorge, part of the Adventist Health network of care.