PeaceHealth in Florence, Oregon: 
A community collaboration

PeaceHealth's presence in the Siuslaw region dates to 1979, when Western Lane Hospital District contracted with PeaceHealth to provide management services for publicly owned Western Lane Hospital. PeaceHealth (a health care ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace) already owned and operated Sacred Heart Medical Center in nearby Eugene, along with three other hospitals in Alaska and Washington.

By the late 1980s, however, community leaders recognized that the 1956 hospital was no longer adequate to meet residents’ needs. Florence civic leaders approached PeaceHealth with a request to build and operate a new facility.

PeaceHealth's governing board agreed, and local leaders launched a fund-raising campaign to build the new hospital. Aiming at $500,000, they succeeded in raising $1.2 million from local residents. The doors of Peace Harbor Hospital opened on July 14, 1989. In the mid-90s PeaceHealth formed Health Associates of Peace Harbor, a multi-specialty medical group.