'Faith' founders took a leap

Hard to believe, but three of the doctors who founded Auburn Faith Hospital can't find a single picture of themselves at the facility on opening day in 1966."You don't think these things are history when they're happening," said retired Dr. Robert Schnetzler, 78.But history was made that day when 10 doctors successfully founded a state-of-the-art hospital that is still going strong in the community, 40 years later. Schnetzler along with Dr. Bruce Becker and Dr. Robert Weiss, will be honored at the State of the Community Dinner Friday for their contributions to healthcare in the community.Mitch Hanna, Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital's chief administrative officer, nominated the men, many of whom are now deceased. One doctor no longer resides in the area.It was the 10 doctors who took a "leap of faith" in creating the hospital when no one else would.Although the Placer County Hospital and the Highland Hospital were serving patients, they were "primitive operations," said Becker, 77, who was a general practitioner at Highland Hospital from 1958 to 1966.Several of the founding physicians at Auburn Faith worked at Highland Hospital or the Auburn Clinic."But we needed a modern hospital," said Weiss, 77.It was Daniel Morgan, a doctor from Roseville, who brought his entrepreneurial spirit to Auburn and pushed for the doctors to build their own hospital, Schnetzler said.But still, it was a financial risk the physicians took. They were liable for the $1.5 million facility and put up half the costs, the rest coming from two Sacramento construction firms."I guess I had a young crapshooter's mentality," Weiss said. "It didn't dawn on me that we could fail."They opened on July 5, 1966, foregoing a July 1 opening because they would have had to pay staff holiday wages over Fourth of July. The timing couldn't have been better.Medicare was just starting up and before long, patients had to wait in the hallways."We were just so busy. We weren't great economic thinkers. We didn't see the larger picture," Schnetzler said. "We thought we'd be fortunate if we break even and we were surprised that we did much better."The first few years were exciting, and the doctors gladly poured themselves into their hospital. Weiss rarely took time off, as surgeons were in high demand. Schnetzler, a general practitioner, did everything from delivering babies to administering anesthesia and setting bones."I'd see patients for a sore throat on the day I had to work the emergency room," he said.The 10 doctors also served on the board of directors, with the hands-on knowledge of what the hospital needed to function."We were these kids with a new toy we could run," Becker said.In 1974, the hospital was sold to the community and was governed by a local board of volunteers. What is now Sutter Health became affiliated with the hospital in 1989 and a formal name change to Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital was made in 1995. Although most of the doctors have passed on, a plaque commemorating them hangs in the hospital's lobby. Margaret Topic is the widow of Dr. John Topic, one of the Auburn Faith founding doctors. She'll be attending the State of the Community Dinner Friday. "The doctors mortgaged everything they had to start that hospital," she said Tuesday. "But (John) was happy to be a part of it."Becker still serves on a few committees with the hospital, "and my wife's a patient every now and then," he said. The three retired doctors still reside in Auburn and play a round of golf occasionally. But for the most part, the physicians watch the evolution of an institution they started. "It's not the same hospital we started," Schnetzler said. "But times change." The Journal's Michelle Miller can be reached at michellem@goldcountrymedia.com.