UPMC Horizon’s Shenango Valley campus celebrates 50 years
Farrell, PA — Exactly 50 years to the day since the Shenango Valley Osteopathic Hospital first opened its doors to patients, UPMC Horizon celebrated the milestone anniversary of its Shenango Valley campus with a birthday-themed celebration on March 29.
In attendance were several members of the original medical and nursing staff, including Lynn Brumm, DO, obstetrician/gynecologist; Leon Stein, DO, general practitioner; and Vera Hubicz, RN, past director of nursing services. Also sharing their memories of the hospital were Peggy Zeigler, who began volunteering with the hospital as a teenager and later joined the nursing staff and then the hospital auxiliary, and Fred Uberti, DO, internal medicine, who has been a member of the medical staff for 41 years.
Although the Shenango Valley Osteopathic Hospital did not officially open until March 29, 1960, the vision to create an osteopathic hospital in the Shenango Valley dates back to 1945, when five osteopathic physicians — Fred Belland, William King, James Likens, Roy McDowell, and Gerald Mills — incorporated the Shenango Valley Osteopathic Hospital as a nonprofit general hospital in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In 1956, the hospital purchased 15.5 acres of land from the city of Farrell for one dollar.
Construction of the new hospital was made possible by a successful community fundraising campaign. With administrator C.E. Clary at the helm, the 50-bed facility was built in a year at a cost of nearly $1 million.
During the past 50 years, many changes have occurred within the hospital, including three additions, a name change to Shenango Valley Medical Center, a merger with Greenville Regional Hospital to form Horizon Health System, and Horizon Health System’s merger with UPMC to form what is now known as UPMC Horizon.
Photographs from the hospital’s first years will be on display in the UPMC Horizon Shenango Valley campus cafeteria for the rest of the week.