Sometime during 1897 Dr. Harry O’Donnell and Dr. H.Z. Hissem established a hospital in Ellsworth using 4 rooms and an improvised operating room at the Mother Bickerdyke Home (now Good Samaritan Retirement Village). The hospital was exceedingly small with room for only a few patients. An operating room consisted of only a bare table. It was one of the few hospitals between K.C. and Denver. Pictured is Dr. Harry O'Donnell.
Dr. H.Z. Hissem along with Dr. Harry O'Donnell are the co-founders of the Ellsworth Hospital. Pictured is Dr. Hissem.
Union Pacific railroad constructed a hospital around 1900. This two-story house west of the San Francisco & Union Railroad crossings was operated by Dr. George Wright. The use was designated for railroaders’ only.
Dr. Harry O’Donnell, recognized leader in the Republican party in Ellsworth County was elected to the state legislature. “He introduced a bill, which was successfully passed, to make the Mother Bickerdyke Home a state institution for the care of the widows and orphans of the soldiers. He also introduced a bill to create a state board of medical examiners to regulate the practice of medicine and surgery and a bill to allow state officers to make more effective quarantine regulations in contagious diseases.” (A Biographical History of Central Kansas excerpt.) Enter story info here
Dr. Harry O’Donnell and Dr. H.Z. Hissem established their own building when the state took over the barracks at the Mother Bickerdyke Home. The Ben Fagan home was bought and remodeled as a hospital. This hospital had 14 beds. In 1900, the Ben Fagan home at Third and Blake Streets (lots 1,2,7 & 8 in block 26 of Blake's Addition) was purchased for $1,710 by The Ellsworth Hospital Association for the establishment of a hospital. The Association was comprised of Drs. O'Donnell and Hissem along with two Ellsworth druggists, Mr. George Seitz and Mr. W. E. Sherriff, and Dr. J. W. Perkins. The property was remodeled into a 14-bed frame hospital, with a sky-lighted operating room.Enter story info here
Ellsworth Hospital Association and Training School for Nurses charter is granted to Drs. Harry O’Donnell and H.Z. Hissem in the Ben Fagan home. (Student nurses worked 12 hour days, six and one half days a week and were paid $8.50 monthly.)
May (Wearing) Gebhardt and Mary M.H. Day are the first to graduate from the two year Ellsworth Hospital School of Nursing.
Dr. Harry O’Donnell passes away. The work of the hospital was carried on solely by H. Z. Hissem until Dr. Alfred O’Donnell, a brother of Dr. Harry O’Donnell, located in Ellsworth and was made Manager of the Hospital and Chief Surgeon.
The Ben Fagan home is again remodeled to provide 4-5 additional rooms for the hospital and training center.
Dr. H.Z. Hissem was elected President of the Tri-County Medical Society.
