History

Montage Health was established in 2016 but has a much longer history serving residents like you in Monterey County. Formerly known as Community Hospital Foundation, we trace our roots back to 1929.

From our beginning to now

1929: Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula gets its unofficial start from Grace Deere Velie Harris, an heir to the John Deere tractor fortune. She establishes an endowment to create a clinic in Carmel, CA, specializing in metabolic disorders.

1934: The Carmel clinic converts into a 30-bed general community hospital named Peninsula Community Hospital.

1950s: The paths of Samuel F.B. Morse and Tom Tonkin cross by chance. In 1955, Peninsula Community Hospital hires Tonkin as administrator. Morse, the founder of Del Monte Properties Company, donates 22 prime, pine-tree-filled acres in the Del Monte forest for a hospital building site.

1961: The hospital officially adopts the name Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.

1962: A new, architecturally modern Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula opens on Holman Highway. The 100-bed, 210,000-square-foot facility costs $3.5 million, most of it raised from community donations. World-renowned architect Edward Durell Stone designs the hospital and receives state and national awards for excellence in architecture.

1971: Work is completed on the distinctive dome’s addition over the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula Fountain Court and 72 additional rooms, including a mental health center. Community contributions fund half of the $4 million projects.

1981: Community Hospital Foundation is created to serve as the parent/holding company for the hospital and related subsidiaries.

1982: The former Eskaton Monterey Hospital in downtown Monterey becomes part of Community Hospital.

1983: Community Hospital opens a 42,000-square-foot addition to the main building. The new space houses outpatient services, educational programs, and business offices.

1988: Community Hospital opens the Outpatient Surgery Center.

1991: Expansion of the Rehabilitation Services department at Community Hospital takes place.

1996: The Family Birth Center at Community Hospital opens, bringing single-room maternity care to local families.

1997 – The remodeled downtown Monterey facility (formerly Eskaton Monterey Hospital) reopens as the Hartnell Professional Center, housing outpatient mental health services, the Recovery Center, the Cardiopulmonary Wellness Program and diagnostics, a satellite laboratory, and X-ray facility.

Community Hospital's new Comprehensive Cancer Center construction groundbreaking takes place.

Community Hospital acquires a second local home health agency, a skilled nursing facility at Hospice House in Monterey, and Hospice of the Central Coast.

1999: The Comprehensive Cancer Center at Community Hospital opens, providing state-of-the-art cancer diagnosis, treatment, and support for patients and their families.

2002: Community Hospital's new Breast Care Center begins operating in Monterey. The center offers comprehensive breast care services, including screenings for osteoporosis, mammograms, and biopsies.

2004: Community Hospital’s Ryan Ranch Outpatient Campus opens, offering a Sleep Disorders Center, Diabetes and Nutrition Therapy, imaging services, a laboratory, and hospice resources.

2006: Community Hospital’s South Pavilion opens with a new Emergency department, eight new operating suites, and a state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit.

2007: Community Hospital’s Forest Pavilion opens, adding 120 spacious patient rooms, each with a private bathroom and shower, daybeds for family or visitors to spend the night, and views of the surrounding pine forest or waterfall and Healing Garden.

2007 also sees the founding of the Tyler Heart Institute, named for Monterey Peninsula residents William and Susanne Tyler. The institute offers comprehensive cardiovascular care, including a cardiac catheterization lab, education and wellness programs, diagnostic services, treatments, and rehabilitation services. Community Hospital offers open-heart surgeries for the first time, under the leadership of nationally renowned cardiac surgeon Dr. Vincent Gaudiani.

2009: The first Peninsula Primary Care (now Montage Medical Group) office opens in Carmel.

2011: Peninsula Wellness Center (now Montage Wellness Center) opens in Marina, establishing the area’s first medical fitness facility. The second location of Montage Medical Group opens at the wellness center complex.

The Breast Care Center is renamed the Carol Hatton Breast Care Center, honoring the late Carol Hatton. She led fundraising efforts to pay for advanced diagnostics for women who can't afford them and new breast imaging technology.

2012: Community Health Innovations, the area’s first population healthcare organization, is established to provide coordinated care and disease management to Monterey citizens.

2013: Aspire Health Plan, a unique, one-stop Medicare Advantage plan, is founded.

2014: Community Hospital opens an Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit, providing multidisciplinary rehabilitation services to individuals who have suffered an acute illness, injury, or accident resulting in significant functional decline.

2015: Montage Wellness Center’s second location opens in Salinas.

2016: Community Hospital Foundation, Community Hospital's parent company, changes its name to Montage Health. The new name reflects the montage of health and wellness services provided through the hospital and its sister companies. It remains an independent, nonprofit, locally owned community healthcare system.

Similarly, Peninsula Primary Care changes its name to Montage Medical Group, and Peninsula Wellness Center becomes Montage Wellness Center.

Community Hospital, Aspire Health Plan, and Community Health Innovations retain their names.

2017: Community Hospital receives a 5-star Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating, the highest possible, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Learn more about Community Hospital’s awards and accreditations and the recognitions Montage Health holds.

Montage Health forms the Montage Health Foundation to serve as the organization’s philanthropic arm.

2018: Bertie Bialek Elliott gives $105.8 million to Montage Health to create Ohana, a groundbreaking mental health program for children and young people.

2019: Community Hospital launches its robotic-assisted surgery program, focusing on gynecologic and urologic procedures

2020: Montage Health mobilizes efforts to care for the community as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world.

MoGo Urgent Care, a new subsidiary, brings a new kind of urgent care to the county, with clinics in Monterey, Carmel, and Marina.

Ground is broken for Ohana House in Ryan Ranch, which will have inpatient and outpatient mental health care for children and adolescents.

2021: Montage Health operates COVID-19 vaccine clinics to protect the community from the virus, providing more than 52,000 doses in the first five months.

The new Carol Hatton Breast Care Center opens in Ryan Ranch, with double the space of the former center.

The Helen Baszucki Center for Nursing Excellence is created with a $6.5 gift from Paul Baszucki.

Montage Health partners with Blue Zones, a community-wide well-being improvement initiative sponsored by Montage Health, Salinas Valley Health, and Taylor Farms that promotes healthy lifestyles.

2022: The newly renovated 14,300-sqare-foot Outpatient Surgery Center opens at Community Hospital with 12 private patient prep and recovery rooms, three large operating rooms, two procedure rooms, and a dedicated eye procedure suite. Community Hospital also completes renovations on the Garden North unit.