56 ADOBE, BRICK & STEEL
Suburban Hospitals
COMMUNITY HOSPITAL Sacramento’s northern area came to be served by the general-care Community Hospital of Sacramento, built on two and one-half acres of land at El Monte and Hawthorne Streets. It was constructed in 1949 as a 15-bed osteopathic facility. It gradually grew to 100 beds, in 1987, and changed from private ownership to the Republic Health Corporation. It closed in 1988 and has since reopened and closed again. AMERICAN RIVER HOSPITAL A growing need for more health care services in north eastern Sacramento County prompted construction of the American River Hospital in 1962, on 15 acres on Engle Road in Carmichael. It opened with 48 beds, expanding to 212 beds by 1966 and adding the first emergency service with full-time physician coverage in Northern California. In 1968 it became the Eskaton American River Healthcare Center, and bed capacity was increased to 242. The first neonatal unit in Sacramento County was opened in 1970 and, in the following 18 years, a mobile coronary unit, a diagnostic wing, a CT scan, a home-style delivery program, Hospice Care of Sacramento, and an ambulatory Surgery Center were added. In 1991, it was acquired by Mercy Healthcare Sacramento and its name was changed to Mercy American River Hospital.
