Staff Report
Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital at 2050 Viborg Road in Solvang is celebrating 55 years of service in 2019.
The hospital, which opened on Nov. 9, 1964, was funded through a community effort spearheaded by a concerned group of 68 women. They formed the Hospital Auxiliary Charter Members in 1962 and along with 1,225 donors contributed $352,391 to make the Solvang hospital a reality.
Ground was broken on Jan. 31, 1964, and by November of that year, the facility then called Santa Ynez Valley Hospital opened to provide acute-care services to the residents and visitors of Solvang and the surrounding Santa Ynez Valley.
The doors officially opened at 10 a.m. Nov. 9, 1964, with the arrival of a pharmaceutical license. By the end of the day, the first baby — Martin John Silva — had been born and eight patients had been admitted. In April 1995, the hospital became affiliated with Cottage Health and was renamed Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital.
SYVCH has received the Press Ganey “Guardian of Excellence Award for Patient Experience” for many years, which acknowledges that the hospital is in the top 5 percent of U.S. health care organizations for overall patient experience in the Emergency Department.
On Oct. 31, 2019, SYVCH celebrated its one-year anniversary as a “Stroke Ready” facility certified by The Joint Commission and Santa Barbara County Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
The SYVCH Tele-Stroke Program provides remote specialized neurological evaluations to patients who come to the Emergency Department with stroke or neurological symptoms.
“The program continues to be a great success and is also benefitting patients with other conditions including seizure, intracranial or traumatic hemorrhage, sudden onset headache, concussion, dizziness and fainting,” said Wende Cappetta, SYVCH Vice President. “The Tele-Stroke Program is saving lives.”
“We are so honored and proud to continue to provide outstanding patient care combined with current technology,” Cappetta added. “It’s all thanks to the strong support of our staff, Auxiliary, Foundation and the entire Santa Ynez Valley community.”
