North Penn Hospital - 1939 to 2001
North Penn Hospital was established in 1939 in Lansdale,
Pennsylvania as a non-profit community hospital to provide
accessible health services to residents of the North Penn
community. Originally named, Elm Terrace Hospital, it
first cared for patients in a building at Seventh and
Broad Streets owned by a local physician, Frank E. Boston.
Dr. Boston also was instrumental in the founding of a
community ambulance company known as the Volunteer Medical
Service Corps.
As the North Penn population grew, the hospital added
two additions to its original building. In the 1970’s
the hospital was licensed for 150 acute care beds including
Obstetrics and a twenty bed Intensive Coronary Care Unit.
The hospital services grew to meet the needs of the community
to include same day surgery and telemetry beds to monitor
post acute cardiac patients.
In the late 1970’s the hospital’s Board of
Directors undertook the task of acquiring a 72 acre tract
of land located in Hatfield Township with the intention
of erecting a new hospital building. By that time the
hospital’s expansion needs had outgrown the available
space and further expansion would have been costly. Residents
of the Borough of Lansdale initially opposed the move.
However meetings with the public resolved their concerns.
On April 19, 1980 the hospital, with the help of a fleet
of local ambulances, moved operations to the new building
located at 100 Medical Campus Drive. The move was accomplished
in less than 4 hours with no interruption to patient care
or service.
During the 1980’s the hospital continued to meet
the healthcare needs of the community by establishing
alliances with urban hospitals to provide specialized
care. Among these were special arrangements for cardiac
patients at Hahnemann Hospital, and for high risk newborn
children at Temple University and Bryn Mawr Hospitals.
The hospital also partnered with Fox Chase Cancer Center
to provide coordinated services between the two hospitals
for cancer patients. Other innovative programs responsive
to the community’s health needs included providing
a mobile mammography unit, and developing a week-end guest
respite care program and opening a heliport to transport
trauma patients.
In October 2001 the hospital board negotiated the sale
of North Penn Hospital to Universal Health Services of
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The transaction provided
financial resources to improve capital equipment and expand
services on the hospital’s campus. As an important
part of the consideration for the purchase of the hospital,
the parties agreed to preserve the charitable assets that
had been accumulated by the hospital over four decades
by establishing the North Penn Community Health
Foundation whose mission is to identify, select
and invest in programs and agencies that will improve
the health, welfare and quality of life of its community.
