History
Community Campus - closed in May 2010
In 1873, Merced Community Medical Center opened on East North Bear Creek as a small one story wooden building. For 31 years, the hospital served the county's sick and less fortunate. In 1904, a new facility was built on 15th Street, with a new wing added for children and maternity cases in1939. The hospital continued to grow with the construction of a $1.1 million facility in June of 1950. Further additions included, an $8.3 million tower in December 1979. In 1997, the county approved Sutter Health to lease what they called Sutter Merced Medical Center. The 174-bed acute care facility specialized in intensive care, emergency care, cardiac, obstetric, pediatrics, surgical, diagnostic, and rehabilitative services.
Today this building is owned by Merced County and is not used as a hospital.
Dominican Campus
In September 1921, a group of city leaders decided to construct a community hospital, Mercy Hospital. The community board purchased the property in February of 1922 and opened the 20-bed facility in 1923. By 1937, the hospital had doubled its size. Mercy later became incorporated on December 8, 1948, and a year later was managed by the Dominican Sisters of Kenosha, Wisconsin. In May of 1996, Mercy Hospital joined Catholic Healthcare West, a system of hospitals, ancillary facilities, home care, and physician organizations in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Today, this campus is used as our Mercy Outpatient Center where we have our Rehabilitation Services, Foundation office, Health Education, Home Care office, and Medical Records.
Two Hospitals Come Together
Mercy and Sutter initiated a series of discussions in the Fall of 1999, with the intent of finding the best direction to meet the hospital and health care needs of the citizens of Merced County. Our hospitals faced combined potential costs of up to $200 million to replace existing facilities due to a variety of causes, including legislation that mandated seismic (earthquake) survivability of hospitals. These efforts and costs would have created identical services in two locations, severely limiting each hospital's ability to upgrade existing services or provide new specialty services that were not available in the community.
Both hospitals agreed to build a single, large hospital that would support the addition of sophisticated medical services that were not available locally. Cost savings also would allow them to provide top quality services to the county’s less fortunate population. And, the expansion of more specialized services greatly enhanced the ability to recruit additional clinical and medical staff to the area.
Born on April 1, 2001, Mercy Hospital and Health Services assumed the lease of Sutter Merced Medical Center, bringing a new name in health care to our community...Mercy Medical Center Merced. With our new name, came a renewed promise to provide our community with the quality and excellence that community members had come to appreciate from both hospitals.
The New Mercy Medical Center - Est. May 2, 2010
In 2012, our hospital system, Catholic Healthcare West changed their name to Dignity Health.
By working together, Mercy employees, volunteers, and doctors will meet the health care needs of today, while we enhance, expand, and create the health care system of the future. Mercy has opened a 186 bed replacement facility in North Merced, located next to the Mercy Cancer Center/an affiliate of the UC Davis Cancer Network. The new medical center is now open and offers the latest in facility design and technology.