Longtime Yuma physician sees hospital progress

  When Yuma native Dr. Dale Webb returned to his hometown in 1965 after a surgical fellowship, the hospital wasn’t quite as modern as he hoped. Before 1972, the Yuma hospital was plagued by financial problems which affected equipment and services, recalled Webb, now 77.

  Parkview Hospital – the original name for what is now Yuma Regional Medical Center – got off to a rocky start in 1958. It seems there was a dispute about the medical staff’s oversight of medical affairs, and a significant number of doctors refused to send patients to Parkview. The alternative was Yuma County Hospital on Avenue B, which was ordered closed a few years later by Dr. William Phillips, the Yuma County Health Director who also was in private practice.

  In 1961, the Baptist Convention in Phoenix took over Parkview, modifying the name to Parkview Baptist. Fresh out of his residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Webb was used to working with the latest technology and equipment and performing the latest surgeries for life-threatening conditions. He described Parkview as “different.”

  “It was very, very difficult in Yuma,” Webb said, who is board certified in General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery.

  In 1965, there were three patient units – obstetrics, pediatrics and central. The entire ER staff was one nurse, and Parkview Baptist did not have an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Webb, always one to speak his mind, enlisted the support of Dr. Henry Meyer (now retired), who cared for many of the heart patients. They pressed for an improved ER and an ICU.

  “We can’t function like this. If we would have had a special care unit, that wouldn’t happen,” Webb said, referring to a hospital board member who died because of a lack of resuscitation equipment and trained staff in the emergency room.

  The hospital agreed to equip the emergency room with patient monitoring equipment and train nurses, and the changes were made very quickly.

  Webb says he bought pacemaker equipment for the hospital because Parkview Baptist couldn’t afford it. He also inserted the first pacemaker at YRMC and then trained Meyer in the procedure. There were no orthopedic surgeons in town, so all surgeons were called on to fix broken bones.

  Isolated by location, Yuma doctors were left on their own to save lives. Dr. Dirk Frauenfelder (now retired), performed the first craniotomy or surgical opening of the skull. Frauenfelder, a general surgeon, was talked through the procedure by a California neurosurgeon via telephone, Webb said.

  Overall, things started improving in 1972 after the hospital was no longer owned by the Baptist group and it became Yuma Regional Medical Center, he added. YRMC is a private, nonprofit corporation.

  The challenge of attracting physicians to practice in Yuma has been a long-standing issue. In the late 1970s, a doctor agreed to move here only if YRMC had a CT scanner, Webb added. That led to the first major fundraiser for the Foundation of Yuma Regional Medical Center so that the scanner could be bought.

  In the mid-1970s, Webb successfully ran for the Yuma County Hospital District Board. This board, elected by a public vote, leases the hospital to YRMC to provide medical care for the community. He continued to be re-elected for more than 20 years.

  “Then I was in a position to ask questions. I’m here to look out for the people, to make sure money is being spent the way it should have been spent,” Webb says.

  In 1982, some people in the community were upset with YRMC and pressed for a second hospital to offer competition. A community hearing was held to determine if American Medical International (AMI), a for-profit company, would be granted what was called a certificate of need, or whether YRMC would expand. At that time, a hospital could not be built – or even expand – without this state certificate.

  Webb said that AMI officials told doctors they could only admit paying patients to their proposed facility, and there would be a limit on the number of patients with Medicare, which pays less than other nongovernmental health insurance plans. As a result, YRMC would have cared only for people who didn’t have insurance or couldn’t afford to pay.

  “I thought, ‘this is going to break YRMC (financially),’” he recalled.

  In the end, AMI lost its bid for the certificate of need and YRMC has continued to grow as a financially stable hospital. That financial stability has made it possible for YRMC to obtain bond funding for major construction projects such as the 2004 six-story patient tower. YRMC currently has an A+ bond rating.

  While some people questioned the wisdom of building six stories but only completing three until more are needed, Webb says that was a smart decision. Twice before, plans called for adding another floor on top of a finished building, most recently in 1976. And both times, it was determined that it would not be possible to build on top of a finished building due to changes in building codes.

  Over the years, Webb and Dr. Mark Solovay pressed for improved communication between the YRMC Board of Directors, the community and with physicians. Solovay and the medical staff established many of those changes in place, Webb said, looking back with pride on what has been accomplished.

  “It’s been a steady march of improvement,” he says. “YRMC has grown and changed, but changes for improvement require eternal vigilance.”