Paradise Valley Hospital is a 291-bed acute care facility in

National City, California National City is a city in the South Bay region of southwestern San Diego County, California, United States. The population was 56,173 at the 2020 United States census, down from 58,582 at the 2010 census. National City is the second-oldest c ...

. It began operation in 1904 as a sanitarium and is currently under the ownership and operation of

Prime Healthcare Services Prime Healthcare is a for-profit headquartered in Ontario, California. It was established in 2001 by chairman and CEO Prem Reddy, and operates 51 hospitals in 14 states. History Prime Healthcare Services began in 1985 when Prem Reddy fou ...

, a hospital management company located in

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, it lies ...

. Paradise Valley Hospital is the largest private employer in National City, with a workforce of approximately 1,200 employees.

History

In 1883, Dr. Anna L. Potts started construction of Mount Paradise Sanitarium seven miles from San Diego. The thirty room sanitarium was finished in 1887. But in 1895, lacking water and patients, Dr. Potts closed Potts Sanitarium, mortgaging it for $14,000. In 1900,

Ellen G. White Ellen Gould White (née Harmon; November 26, 1827 – July 16, 1915) was an American author, and was both the prophet and a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Along with other Adventist leaders, such as Joseph Bates and her husb ...

a founder of the

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sa ...

repeatedly received strong impressions from

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

that the region was a good location for a sanitarium and

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

. During Mrs. White's visit to San Diego in 1902, Paradise Sanitarium was for sale for $11,000. Real estate prices slowly declined as the drought continued. In 1904, the price was down to $6,000, but the local conference didn't want to buy it. Later Mrs. White and a wealthy friend, Mrs. Josephine Gotzain, bought it for $4,000. There still was no water, so Ellen White hired a well digger and water was found at 98 feet. Before Paradise Valley Sanitarium could open, Mrs. Julia Ulrich arrived becoming the first patient. Others followed putting off the dedication of the sanitarium until 1906. After 5 years Paradise Valley Sanitarium was sold to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1910. Mabel White, the sanitariums first

nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

did all the cooking and cleaning. The sanitarium gave natural remedies, a healthy diet and clean living. A training school for nurses was started at Paradise Valley Sanitarium in 1909. In 1914 the school was approved by California and continued to operate until 1966. In 1966 a new Paradise Valley Hospital opened in National City. In 2006, the money losing Paradise Valley Hospital needed a $61 million remodeling to make it

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

compliant.

Adventist Health Adventist Health is a Seventh-day Adventist nonprofit organization headquartered in Roseville, California, that operates facilities in 3 states across the Western United States. History In the 1960s, the General Conference transferred owner ...

sold Paradise Valley Hospital to Prime Healthcare Services, a new for-profit hospital chain owned by Dr.

Prem Reddy Prem N. Reddy (born 1 June 1948) is an Indian cardiologist and an owner of Prime Healthcare Services, Inc. Life and career Reddy was born in a rural village called Baddevolu village and grew up in Nidiguntapalem village Nellore district in sou ...

, for $30 million.

References

External links

*
This hospital in the CA Healthcare Atlas
A project by OSHPD {{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1904 Hospitals in San Diego County, California Former Seventh-day Adventist institutions Prime Healthcare Services National City, California Tuberculosis sanatoria in the United States Adventism in the United States