For the eighth year in a row, Clovis Community Medical Center has been voted by Fresno Bee readers as “Best Hospital” in the region.
“We are so grateful to our community for their continued trust and support — especially through what has been a most challenging year in healthcare,” said John Kass, vice president of operations at the hospital. “This honor is a testament to the passion, resiliency and hard work of our amazing doctors and staff.”
This year, the Clovis Chamber of Commerce is also honoring the hospital as its “Business of the Year” for the extraordinary work Clovis Community did in caring for people through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most years, the hospital admits more than 15,000 patients, sees more than 62,000 emergency department visits and delivers up to 5,000 babies. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 900 surgeries a month were performed in its 10 operating suites.
Continued growth to keep up with Valley needs
Since its start in 1965 as a 35-bed hospital at DeWitt and Sierra avenues near Old Town Clovis, the medical center has grown in scope and reputation. It has been nationally recognized for clinical and patient experience, especially in labor and delivery care, and in hip and knee replacement surgery.
In 1988, the hospital moved to what was then a rural part of Clovis off Herndon and Temperance avenues and soon became one of the busiest outpatient surgery centers in the area. The hospital has expanded rapidly over the past decade to meet the growing needs of the Central San Joaquin Valley. A $300 million expansion, launched in 2008, nearly doubled the hospital’s capacity to 208 all-private rooms.
The current campus houses the Marjorie E. Radin Breast Care Center and the 100,000-square-foot Community Cancer Institute, which brings together oncology services including imaging, radiation treatments, chemotherapy and support services. A multi-specialty team of doctors and therapists coordinate to expedite cancer care.
The Cancer Institute houses the newest technology to diagnose and fight cancer, including CyberKnife®, CT and MRI scanners, four linear accelerators for radiation treatments and one of the first all-digital PET/CT scanners in California. This high-tech PET/CT scanner makes it easier for doctors to detect much smaller cancer cells while patients spend far less time in the scanner.
Clovis Community continues to grow, breaking ground in 2019 to add another five-story bed tower, a Heart & Lung Institute, six operating rooms, 15,000 additional square feet of emergency department space, more parking and enhanced radiology and lab services.
The newest medical center construction project has continued throughout the coronavirus pandemic and once completed in 2022, Clovis Community will have 352 private inpatient beds. The expansion of the hospital will provide 420 new job opportunities from nurses to therapists, technicians and support staff.