Photo By Douglas Stutz | In 1918, despite the 97 years difference and a slight update in equipment, gear and...... read more read more
BREMERTON, Wash. - In some historical form or another, Naval Hospital Bremerton has charted a course in providing medical support and patient centered care to Sailors and Marines, their families and all others entrusted to the command in the greater Puget Sound for well over 100 years.
Although March 9, 2015, marks the official 112th birthday of NHB, there was a Navy Medicine presence in the early years of Puget Sound Navy Yard - later the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) - which was established in 1891. The first medical department for the shipyard was housed aboard the decommissioned gunship USS Nipsic in 1896, which had a rich history of its own from chasing Confederate raiders across the Pacific during the Civil War.
“There’s not a lot of commands that have our history or can say they carry on the legacy as Naval Hospital Bremerton has throughout the years,” said Capt. Christopher Quarles, NHB Commanding Officer, who has served three tours– internship, residency and as CO – at NHB.
A wood frame building was constructed on the Nipsic hull amidships to make it a barracks ship. In 1901 a sick quarters was opened in a building above Dry Dock No. 1. It had 16 beds and four tents for patients. This two-story frame building was then officially designated a Naval Hospital in March 1903. The staff included one surgeon and two hospital stewards. In 1907 the hospital cared for 225 patients.
In March 1909 the Navy Yard received funding for a permanent hospital. Construction workers completed the building on Jan. 27, 1911. However, medical equipment did not arrive until late 1911, delaying the opening until Jan. 1, 1912. The hospital was a two-story masonry brick administration building with two attached wings and a capacity of 200 beds. The building was built in the Navy Yard's northwest section on the hillside above the industrial area to take advantage of breezes and cleaner air. Patients had a view of the water or the golf course on the landward side. Meanwhile, construction of Dry Dock No. 2 had undercut the foundation of the old hospital building, which was therefore condemned. The Navy sold the building to a private group that moved it to Seventh and Chester Streets in Bremerton. It became a civilian hospital and expanded over the years serving several other functions such as a nursing home and apartment complex.
In 1915 an isolation building was added but it proved insufficient to handle the influenza epidemic three years later, in 1918. A staff of one medical officer, one nurse, two stewards and 12 American Red Cross nurses volunteers dealt with four to five deaths a day at the peak of the epidemic. The death toll for 1918 was 89 patients, 77 of those from influenza.
In the 1920s additional buildings were constructed. On Nov. 8, 1920, an American Red Cross Hostess House opened that offered a relaxing home-like setting for patient recreation. A frame nurses quarters was added in June 1921. Over the next three years medical officer housing and a commanders quarters were built. Additional masonry brick wings, connected by an enclosed corridor, were added to the hospital in 1924 and 1925. The hospital reached a capacity of 400 beds.
There was little construction activity during the early 1930s due to the depression and limited budgets. Public Works Administration projects starting in 1936 added more permanent buildings. These additions included a corpsmen barracks and, in 1939, another wing. At this point the hospital had its administration or central building and eight wings.
In the early years of World War II, wood frame H-type temporary wards and other buildings were built at the hospital complex. A temporary barracks for Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES) was added in 1943. The WAVES performed clerical and support services in the hospital. The most famous visitor to the hospital during the war was President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945). He toured the facility in a convertible, stopping to talk with personnel outside the hospital. Patients leaned out the windows to see the president and shout words of encouragement. The patient count for all of World War II was more than 29,000.
The Korean War of the early 1950s made the hospital busy again with 17,000 admissions. During the Vietnam War in 1968, the Naval Hospital was a sprawling 295-bed complex (with the ability then to expand to 509 beds in the case of an emergency), with 31 buildings of which 22 were permanent masonry and 12 actively housing patients. Most were connected by enclosed walkways.
Patient census averaged about 220 at any one time with peak period of occupancy of nearly 260. Administrative records show that in March of ’68, there were 345 admissions, with 164 on active duty, 136 dependents and 45 listed as "other classification."
Most of the patients came due to injuries sustained in Vietnam during the war. It’s been estimated that 70 such casualties were normally at the hospital for treatment and recovery during that time.
There was 375 staff in 1968 with 240 Navy personnel. There were 37 doctors, two dentists, 12 medical service corps officers, 24 nurses, and one chaplain. There were 131 male and 26 female enlisted personnel. There were also 19 civilian nurses, 14 nursing assistants, and approximately 100 other civilians in a variety of duties.
Four years later in 1972, then commanding officer, Capt. William Lineberry commented that “the hospital is built very solidly. But the way it’s constructed, there’s a lot of space not in the right places, It grew during the war and it grew kind of topsy,” he said, in charge then of approximately 50 doctors and 400 staff members at the then-175 bed hospital.
Lineberry added that “we have recommended a new hospital by 1974, when they’ll start budgeting for it and try for Congressional approval. We’ve already discussed this and have even picked out and set aside a site at Jackson Park,” he said.
Finally, after more than 68 years in the building overlooking the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, NHB moved to its present site on Ostrich Bay in 1980 on the former Naval Ammunition Depot at Jackson Park. NHB also became the parent command for three major branch clinics located at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Naval Station Everett, and Naval Base Kitsap Bangor.
There have been notable changes to NHB at the current locale, including the complete renovation of Northwest Beginnings Family Birthing Center in 2005, with many of the family-centric improvements based upon input from the families themselves.
Gone are the days where a mother labors in one room, delivers the baby in an operating room and recovers in another. Gone also are the days where family members do not have room to visit with the mother and baby because of room size constraints. The project included streamlining the administration of the labor and delivery department as well as completing eight state of the art labor and delivery suites. In addition to ensuring that the entire family can experience the birthing process, the rooms also feature bedside monitoring, and enlarged bathrooms, which include a large labor tub. The family-centered care experience allows mothers to have access to the nurse call system, which allows the patient to call their nurse directly, and use a computerized infant security system that tracks and monitors newborns wherever they are in the facility.
Additionally, the Emergency Department transitioned to an Urgent Care Clinic (UCC) in 2014. The UCC - available to beneficiaries 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with acute care needs handled on a case-by-case basis - has provided the ability to deal with a wide spectrum of medical ailments from a mild case of poison ivy to handling broken bones, stitching up cuts, and caring for minor burns or bruises, colds and fever(s).
If patients come to NHB with an actual emergency, they will be transferred via ambulance to the local Emergency Room at a community hospital such as Harrison Medical Center.
When the ER was in place at NHB the average census was approx 48-54 per day. With the UCC in place, the daily census has risen to approximately 70 patients, this on top of beneficiaries also using the Nurse Advice Line and Relay Health options to contact medical experts and their providers for timely answers to their questions.
NHB continues to be a community-based acute care and obstetrical hospital, offering expert primary care, emergency care and a broad range of medical and surgical specialties to carry out the three-fold primary mission to support warfighters, past and present, and their families by: Providing exceptional care anytime, anywhere; shape military medicine through training, research, and graduate medical education; and to prepare our forces for deployment.
NHB offers a variety of programs and services, providing patients with the most effective and appropriate tools to maintain health and wellness for life. All services are centrally located at the main hospital with the exception of branch health clinics and drive-through satellite refill pharmacy, which is located nearby in the Jackson Park Navy family housing area. The staff number approximately 1,400 military, civilian, contract, and American Red Cross volunteer personnel.
NHB partners in the TRICARE West region with United Health Care, and provides quality care to the 88,000 eligible individuals residing within the Puget Sound (approx. 60,000 in the greater Kitsap County area alone).
A dozen years into the next century of medical care, the continual strategic focus at NHB along with its aforementioned mission is a trio of priorities: Readiness by providing agile and adaptable capabilities to be prepared to provide medical support anywhere at anytime on a global scale across a wide range of military operations; Value by ensuring exceptional care to patients and beneficiaries with the highest quality care through best healthcare practices and efficient utilization of all medical services; and Jointness by helping to lead Navy Medicine in improved interoperability – such as continuing to foster the working relationships with Madigan Army Medical Center, Western Regional Medical Command, and Puget Sound enhanced Multiservice Market (eMSM) – and pursuing effective ways for mission accomplishment.
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.10.2015 18:25 |
| Story ID: | 156581 |
| Location: | BREMERTON, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 1,045 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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