The vision of the community leaders who first conceived of Memorial Hospital in 1951 has been fulfilled and expanded many times!
Today your community hospital, Bakersfield Memorial, has completed its most challenging expansion project ever, the five-story West Tower that has significantly increased both the hospital's size and sophistication. The tower adds 24 new beds to the Intensive Care Unit, in addition to 60 private general medical care rooms and 30 private post-partum rooms for moms and babies. In addition, the tower expansion has made it possible to upgrade technology throughout the hospital to include facility-wide wireless monitoring of patients.
Our Emergency Department has also expanded to include a new eight-bed Heart and nationally certified Stroke Center. The physical structure of Memorial was reinforced, rendering it compliant to meet State of California earthquake standards that won't be required until 2013. In addition, several areas of the hospital, parts that were built in 1956, have been updated—all this to meet the current and future demands of our patients.
Bakersfield Memorial Hospital is the Southern Valley's largest regional medical center with 418 licensed acute care beds, 48 critical care beds, 13 state-of-the- science surgical suites, the new Children's Medical Center, a 31 bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and a full complement of diagnostic laboratory and imaging services. The West Tower expansion underscores Memorial's commitment to meeting the needs of Kern County today and tomorrow.
