In 1961, the voters of Western Garfield County voted to create a special district to help fund a hospital in Rifle (Grand River Hospital District). The district covers 1,500 square miles. On December 2, 1962, Clagett Memorial Hospital opened its doors to serve the community on 5th Street. The hospital was named after a beloved physician in the community, Dr. Oscar F. Clagett. It was always Dr. Clagett’s dream that Rifle would one day have its own hospital.
In 1968, the hospital district built an adjacent long-term care center, the E. Dene Moore Care Center, named after another beloved physician in Rifle.
Throughout the decades, the hospital experienced very lucrative years followed by very challenging years because of the boom/bust cycle in the local energy sector. In 1999, the hospital needed to build additional space for the growing population, and remodeling the existing hospital was not an option. In 2000, the GRHD Board of Directors decided to ask the voters to support building a new hospital on newly acquired land on Airport Road. The initiative passed, and in the spring of 2002, the new hospital, Grand River Hospital and Medical Center, opened its doors at 501 Airport Rd.
Focusing on a new direction, the hospital became quite successful in the 2000s, and in 2009 built a new three-story Medical Office Building. In 2012, the organization rebranded itself as Grand River Health. In 2014, Grand River built a new medical clinic in Battlement Mesa (Clinic West). In 2017, the Grand River Hospital District board once again went to the voters, asking them to pass a bond and mill levy to build a new three-story patient wing and a long-term care center. The initiative passed, and the new Care Center and Patient Wing opened in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Today, Grand River Health employs over 50 physicians and over 800 staff members. Grand River Health is proud to serve well over 32,000 people and offers a wealth of healthcare services for the community!
Mission
Their mission is to improve the health and well-being of their communities.