According to hospital records, the facility then known as Santa Ynez Valley Hospital opened on November 9, 1964, with the arrival of a pharmaceutical license at 10 a.m. By the end of the day, the first baby had been born and a total of eight patients were admitted. The hospital was funded through a grass roots community effort spearheaded by 58 dedicated volunteers. A total of 1,225 donors contributed $352,391 toward the original 18,211 square foot facility with 32 patient beds. On November 9, 2016, Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital staff, Auxiliary volunteers and SYVCH Foundation members celebrated 52 years of service to the community with a barbeque lunch on the grounds.
“Advances in care at the hospital include new state-of-the- art defibrillators for adult and pediatric patients, a new digital portable ultrasound and new digital, portable x-ray machine for the Emergency Department. We are proud to be able to continue to provide services with current technology thanks to the strong support of our auxiliary, foundation and community,” said Wende Cappetta, SYVCH Vice President.
The hospital became affiliated with Cottage Health in April 1995 and today, continues to provide high quality inpatient and outpatient services including outpatient surgical services, comprehensive imaging (including MRI, CT, digital mammography, ultrasound, X-ray), outpatient infusion suite, on-site laboratory, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, physicians’ specialty clinic and 24-hour emergency services to the residents and visitors of the Santa Ynez Valley.
Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital has received many awards over its 52 years of service, and was ranked by the National Rural Health Association as one of the top 20 critical access hospitals in the nation for best practices in patient satisfaction in 2014 and 2015.
Founded in 1964, the not-for-profit Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital (SYVCH) located at 2050 Viborg Road in Solvang, provides high quality outpatient surgical services, inpatient care, comprehensive imaging (including MRI, CT, digital mammography, ultrasound, X-ray), on-site laboratory, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, physicians’ specialty clinic and 24-hour emergency services to the community. SYVCH is part of not-for-profit Cottage Health, the leader in providing advanced medical care to the Central Coast region. Specialties include the Cottage Children’s Medical Center, Level 2 Trauma Center, Neuroscience Institute, Heart & Vascular Center, Center for Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Hospital. The Cottage Health medical staff includes more than 700 physicians, many with subspecialties typically found only at university medical centers. In 2015, the Cottage Health hospitals in Goleta, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Valley provided inpatient care for 19,000 people, treated 76,000 patients through their 24-hour emergency departments and helped deliver 2,200 newborns. For more information, call 805-688-6431 or visit www.cottagehealth.org/syvch
