In the early 1950’s, a non-profit corporation called the Lower Umpqua Association was formed to deal with the need for local medical care in coastal Douglas County.In 1954, a Lower Umpqua Area Hospital District was formed that included the Reedsport, Winchester Bay, Gardiner and Scottsburg areas. Donations from the community and three major lumber companies, as well as tax levies, formed the ... more ancial base with which to start a new hospital. With the help of a Hill-Burton grant, a federal grant to aid in building rural area hospitals, the hospital was built in the early 1960s.The hospital, built in the form of a modified Maltese cross, opened February 3, 1964 with eighteen acute care beds and twenty-two nursing home beds. Equipment to furnish the rooms and various departments was donated by civic and fraternal groups and individuals in the community. Dr. Rickard W. McLean was the first Chief of Staff, and an elected five-member Board of Directors administered the affairs of the hospital under the auspices of the Lower Umpqua Hospital District.The hospital was managed by independent hospital administrators until 1977 when A.E. Brim and Associates, Inc., hospital management consultants, were hired to manage the hospital. less