In 2024, Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics will open a state-of-the-art facility for the communities we serve. We are excited to offer our patients a healing space with plenty of room for privacy and a tranquil view across the valley floor from the new location of our surgical services department. 

While we are in the process of turning architectural renderings into reality, there has been — and will continue to be — some short-term pain over the next two years. This is to be expected with a construction project of this magnitude. One of the first things that had to go early on this past June was the beautifully landscaped and award-winning hillside that has defined our campus for some time. 

As excited as we all are about the new build, thinking about the trees, shrubs and plants having to come out was bittersweet. Facilities Director Elaine La Rochelle and her team have come up with creative ways to salvage what we can. Last June, before the construction began in earnest, Elaine had the great idea to offer up the plantings to employees to dig up, take home and share the landscape legacy of GRH. 

More than 75 employees came that Saturday morning to remove hundreds and hundreds of plants and give them a new home. They brought buckets and shovels, taking pickup loads home to nurture and enjoy. A gratifying solution to a bittersweet situation.  We honor the past here, but we always look to the future.   

Read more about The Great Plant Rescue of 2022 in the Fall 2022 issue our public newsletter Life & Health and learn more about our campus expansion and what our “Building the Future of Health Care in Union County” project means for the communities we serve.