The roots of Three Rivers Hospital reach back to the late 1940s, when the communities of Bridgeport, Brewster, and Pateros came together with a shared goal: to build a hospital for a growing rural area. Through grassroots fundraising efforts, they raised the money to begin construction. When financial challenges arose, the Board of Directors formed a public hospital district to keep the project alive. With support from local tax dollars, the 12-bed hospital officially opened its doors on January 12, 1949.

Just a few years later, on March 2, 1951, the hospital was named McKinley Memorial Hospital in honor of Dr. Charles McKinley — one of the area’s earliest physicians.

As the local population grew, especially with the construction of Chief Joseph Dam, the hospital quickly outgrew its original space. By 1954, it was serving more than twice its capacity. This spurred plans for a larger facility and an expansion of the hospital district to include communities in the lower and upper Methow Valley and northern Douglas County. The district was renamed Okanogan Douglas County District Hospital.

Thanks to a successful bond vote, a new 35-bed hospital opened on June 13, 1959. The original building was later converted into a 36-bed nursing home, which eventually closed when a new assisted living facility opened in Brewster. In the years that followed, as healthcare needs evolved, so did the hospital. Additions included new surgery suites, an intensive care unit, a coronary care unit, expanded lab and imaging services, and specialized care areas like pediatrics.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the hospital continued modernizing and diversifying its services — previous services included nuclear medicine, an assisted living facility (Hillcrest House, now known as our family practice and specialty clinic), respiratory therapy, a fitness center, and a wellness clinic. In 2011, administrative offices were relocated to make room for more patient care services, and that same year, the hospital embraced a new identity: Three Rivers Hospital, a name selected by the community through a public contest. While our official name remains Okanogan Douglas County District Hospital No. 1, we proudly do business as Three Rivers Hospital.

In April 2020, we made the difficult but necessary decision to sunset our award-winning obstetrics program. With too few OB providers to support three separate programs in the county, we joined other hospitals in centralizing these vital services at Mid-Valley Hospital in Omak to ensure access remained available for families in our rural region.

Today and Beyond

Three Rivers Hospital continues to evolve to meet the health needs of our district. We offer:

• Full-spectrum family practice care at Three Rivers Family Medicine
• General, orthopedic, and gynecological surgery
• Comprehensive women’s health services, including perimenopause/menopause care and 3D mammography
• 24/7 emergency care from board-certified physicians
• State-of-the-art imaging and lab testing
• Orthopedics, physical therapy, advanced wound care, IV therapy, and transitional care for extended recovery close to home

We’re proud to carry forward a long-standing tradition of community-driven, compassionate care.