MANSFIELD – It’s not often a health care institution has such a close brush with history as Mansfield’s does.
Last week, Mansfield General Hospital – now known as OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital – celebrated its 100th anniversary. The hospital first opened its doors on May 10, 1918.
The world looked vastly different in 1918: Woodrow Wilson was president, Babe Ruth was playing for the Boston Red Sox, and the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment allowing women to vote, paving the way for the 19th amendment to officially pass the following year.
That same year, the city of Mansfield celebrated the opening of Mansfield General Hospital, a 50-bed, state-of-the-art hospital for its time. Ground was broken for the hospital two years prior, in the same spot where OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital still stands today.
That same ground remains at the hospital today – literally. Unearthed in a copper time capsule on the hospital’s 75th anniversary was a jar of dirt with a note inside: “Part of the first shovelful of earth turned at the breaking of the ground for the erection of the new Mansfield General Hospital by Mr. Frank B. Black, president of the board of trustees, Mansfield, Ohio, Thursday, 9 a.m. Aug. 10, 1916.”
It’s a favorite relic of Jean Halpin’s, president of OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals.
“When I look back in the history, we have been the foundation of the community,” Halpin said. “We’ve always been here, we always will be here.”
The first steps to building a medical institution in Mansfield were taken years prior with community leaders like Black, Glessner, Brinkerhoff and Blymyer leading the way – names that now label the streets surrounding the hospital today. In a five-day period, 6,000 people came together to raise $150,000 to build a hospital, the equivalent of $3.2 million today.
“And this was in an era that had no social media,” Halpin said. “To rebuild this hospital as it is now would be $326 million.”
On Sept. 27, 1916, the original contributors to building the hospital gathered on the corner of 4th and Main Street to take a picture commemorating their fundraising goal. That same photo is now displayed caddy-corner to its original location in an OhioHealth wallscape in downtown Mansfield – with the celebratory cigars digitally removed, of course.
The wallscape is just one of many ways OhioHealth has commemorated a century of service this month. The walls of the hospital have been decorated with streamers and old pictures, and each of the hospital’s 2,500 associates were gifted with two tickets to a locally-produced show at the Renaissance Theatre.
Halpin and other associates have enjoyed perusing the history of Mansfield Hospital, especially the differences in patient treatment from a century ago.
“If you had tuberculosis you had to have a period of time that you spent out on the porch for fresh air, and then you came back into a ward of 12 people,” Halpin said. “Care was very different than what it is today.”
There’s plenty of recent history to be proud of, as well. Halpin noted that in the past four years since the former MedCentral Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals realigned to become OhioHealth hospitals, 30 nationally-ranked physicians have been recruited to work in the area.
“We’ve looked at individuals that have grown up in smaller communities, who grew up in the Midwest, because that’s the success of having someone that will be a part of the community for a long period of time,” Halpin said.
Other notable expansions and partnerships within the last four years have been the addition of a five-story medical office building with surgical suites, advanced cardiac imaging and a wellness center, a partnership with Nationwide Children’s Hospital to lead Mansfield’s pediatric hospitalist program, and joining the MD Anderson Cancer Network.
“The quality, the expertise and the new procedures that we’re able to do in this community is significant compared to where we were over the last 100 years,” Halpin said. “It’s really launching us for the next 100 years.”
Indeed, Halpin already has her sights set on the future for the largest employer in six counties. Perhaps counterintuitively, one of Halpin’s goals for the next chapter of Mansfield Hospital is actually keeping people out of the hospital.
“We always have to take care of the sick, that’s our core mission, but when we look at our cardinal value to improve the health of those we serve, it’s how do we keep people out of the hospital,” Halpin said.
Technology has been a huge factor in improving standards of care over the past century. Telemedicine has grown in popularity to allow healthcare providers to communicate with patients at home, monitoring vital statistics remotely. Even 12 years ago, a total knee replacement would keep a patient in the hospital for an average of 10 days – now, that patient can go home in 12 hours.
“I think the next round of technology is going to be on the genetic side, understanding what our genetic makeup is and how do we focus on risk and prevention,” Halpin said. “How do we start to look at the genetic footprint of a human being and focus on the prevention side?”
On the hospital side, Halpin also plans on focusing on developing the local workforce with partnerships with Ohio State Mansfield, North Central State University and Ashland University to create curriculum to contribute to Richland County’s economic development.
But for now, Mansfield Hospital is taking a moment to pause and reflect on its place in history. Halpin isn’t taking anything for granted.
“You don’t get to turn 100 often,” she said. “So to be a part of the transformation to the next century, this will be something we’ll remember for the rest of our life.”
