Hospital's history a 40-year trek

Journal Staff WriterAlmost 40 years ago, the 30 acres off Highway 49 that Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital owns and resides on was Wendell Robie?s open field.Retired Auburn general practitioner Robert Schnetzler was among the 10 doctors who chipped in to build a $1.5 million 50-bed hospital in 1964. The now 76-year-old Auburn resident said Roseville?s Dr. Dan Morgan and Auburn?s Pathologist Bob Adler headed the effort.?We had a hospital, but it had outlived its time,? Schnetzler said. ?The Highland Hospital on the canyon edge was too small, the facilities were very poor and the all wood facility was a fire danger.?Schnetzler said Roseville doctors Hugh Curnutt, Charles Glaser and Morgan teamed with Auburn physicians Bruce Becker, Wilbur Overmiller, Thomas Rossitto, John Topic, Adler and Surgeon Robert Weiss to build the hospital that was ready to open July 1, 1966. However, Schnetzler said the facility opened July 5 so the doctors wouldn?t have to pay employees double-time on the July 4 holiday.Schnetzler said the Highland Hospital remained open during the first few years, but the doctors? new facility was a success because the community was familiar with the physicians who had practiced previously at Highland Hospital or the Auburn Clinic, located where Head Start now resides on High Street.?People knew us. We were big frogs in a little pond,? Schnetzler said. ?Dr. Overmiller was a popular doctor and Dr. Weiss, the only surgeon in town, was an excellent surgeon. He worked long hours and made the hospital a success. He had a good reputation and justifiably so.?Schnetzler said the doctors, who served on the hospital board, were the first chiefs of staff and practiced in the Education Street facility, taking turns in the emergency room delivering babies and setting fractures.?When we opened Medicare and MediCal had started under the (President Lyndon) Johnson administration in 1966 so immediately we had more business than we could handle. Within two weeks there were people that were hanging out in the halls waiting,? Schnetzler said. ?When I came to town (in 1958) there were nothing but general practitioners, but within a year of the hospital opening we began to get specialists.?He said the hospital, named Auburn Faith because it took faith to get it started, was sold to the community in 1974.?We didn?t want to commit any more of our money to it,? Schnetzler said. ?Even though we made money, we recognized that it was a rather risky way for individuals to do business so we sold it to the community,? Schnetzler said.Robin Montgomery, Sutter?s public relations coordinator, said the facility?s name changed from Auburn Faith Hospital to Auburn Faith Community Hospital, which was governed by a local volunteer board of trustees. Schnetzler said the hospital grew from a 50-bed facility to 100-bed non-profit hospital during the community?s 15-year governance and the Highland Hospital closed. Montgomery said in 1989 the facility became affiliated with what is now called Sutter Health and in 1995 the hospital formally adopted a new name: Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital. Schnetzler said the community gave Sutter the hospital with the promise of expansions including the urgent care department. Montgomery said Sutter first enlarged the emergency room in 1986 and the 2004 expansion was designed to meet the ever growing community need.Montgomery said the Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region governing board and the Placer County Community Advisory Board were established in 1996. Schnetzler said the original structure still stands, but now it is merely the surgical wing and some of the operating rooms. He said Sutter may have to rebuild the whole hospital because of the original 37-year-old portions of the building, which might fall to pieces if there were an earthquake in Auburn, but he is still proud to be affiliated with its beginning.?It served the community well,? he said.