 (This article was written for a dedication ceremony and presentation of the deed for the entire Share Medical Center to the City of Alva, August 2, 1970 at 1:30 pm)
This modern, newly constructed medical complex is located on a 20-acre site with a building cost of approximately $3,000,000.00. This complex offers the new three-phase care, now the modern trend with a 37-bed acute care hospital. It is fully equipped and expandable to 75 beds without addition to the dining and surgical facilities, laundry, heating and cooling. An 80-bed separate convalescent center for the care of the ill and elderly is near by. Both facilities are built to strict hospital specifications and carry a hospital rating.
This wonderful project was made possible by the participation of the City of Alva, The Charles Morton Share Trust, and the Hill-Burton Federal Funds. The Share Medical Center is owned by the City of Alva and operated by the Alva Hospital under their full and complete control.
The Charles Morton Share Trust is a charitable trust founded by Charles Morton Share in 1959. It has been active in promoting and carrying on the work and ideas of the donor, Charles Morton Share, and his parents, Charles C. and Lizzie B. Share. The Trust is operated by a five-member board consisting of the following: Mr. William Stites, Mr. J.R. Holder, Mr. C.E. Johnson, Miss Gertrude Myers, and Mr. Joe Morriss of the Liberty National Bank and Trust Company, Oklahoma City. The City of Alva participated with a $500,000 bond issue and the Hill-Burton commitment was between $700,000 and $800,000.
Four rooms are especially built and equipped for heart examinations and treatments as well as recovery rooms. This hospital is probably the first one West of the Mississippi River to have the special equipment to safeguard the patient in the use of pace-makers for heart treatment.
The Nurse Call and Paging System will enable the nurses to check and talk with any patient from the nurses’ station. The Maternity Ward is at one end of the hospital and the attending doctor can visit this section without going through the other sections of the hospital. The halls have rubber floors, which will help to keep the noise down as well as being more restful for the nurses.
The Operating Rooms all have grounded floors and 100% fresh air to the heating and cooling systems, which guards against any chance of an explosion from the anesthetics. The heating and cooling system is the most modern that can be acquired. Any part of both buildings can be heated or cooled at the same time as the need arises, in either winter or summer.
A complete new Laundry is included, which will insure clean, sanitary linens all within the hospital complex. A complete Kitchen has been installed with equipment to enable the cooking staff to prepare and all diets prescribed. All meals will be checked by a licensed dietician.
The best X-ray Equipment, outside the experimental types, ahs been installed and enables examinations and treatment not possible in most hospitals.
These modern facilities, when adequately staffed with doctors and nurses, will serve and care for the medical needs of the people in Northwest Oklahoma and Southern Kansas.
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