History

In the early 1960s, a country doctor named John Owsley Jones and a handful of forward-thinking residents had a vision for their small towns of Simi and Santa Susana: They would create a special place of healing in the picturesque valley they called home.  

The residents presented a proposal to the Southern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to build a healthcare facility to meet the needs of their growing community of more than 8,000 residents. The Conference took up their proposal, and plans were made to build a 32,000-square-foot facility with 50 beds. The price tag for the new facility would reach $850,000, with a community-sponsored fund-raising effort targeted to raise $300,000 of the cost.

The new hospital might not have come to fruition without the help of Lorena Montgomery Paul, a local resident who was exceptionally pleased with the care Dr. Jones provided to her mother and other family members. In honor of Dr. Jones, Mrs. Paul donated property valued at $55,000 to help build the new hospital. Dr. Jones himself donated the land on which the main campus of Simi Valley Hospital currently stands. 

On April 26, 1964, groundbreaking ceremonies for Simi Valley Community Hospital were held on the corner of Avenida Simi and Sycamore Drive, which remains the location of Simi Valley Hospital. The Simi Valley High School pep band provided entertainment, Simi Valley American Legion Post 484 conducted the flag salute, and the Reverend Robert F. Ellis of the Moorpark Methodist Church led the invocation for the groundbreaking ceremony.

Less than 16 months later, on August 3, 1965, a ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official opening. Leading the new hospital was Administrator William H. Gosse, who came to Simi Valley from Glendale Sanitarium and Hospital, which is known today as Adventist Health Glendale. On opening day, the first patient at the hospital was admitted for a tonsillectomy. Eight days later, on August 11, the first baby was delivered at the hospital.

In 1967, the facility was renamed Simi Valley Adventist Hospital to emphasize its Christian heritage and to connect it more directly with its parent denomination. An expansion project for the hospital's maternity unit prepared the organization for a population boom as new residents poured into the recently founded city of Simi Valley, which incorporated on October 10, 1969, and encompassed the former towns of Simi and Santa Susana.

Simi Valley Adventist Hospital continued growing into the 1970s, adding 95 beds plus a variety of services, including pediatrics, coronary care, rehabilitation, intensive care, and skilled nursing care. Growth also came in the form of acquisition when the hospital purchased Simi Valley Convalescent Hospital to offer extended care services for the burgeoning community. Today, that building is known as the North Campus, where rehabilitation services are housed.

In 1979, the hospital launched the Child Development Center, a pediatric rehabilitation program for infants and young children with physical and cognitive needs.

In 1985, the hospital built a 64,000-square-foot, three-story addition for its emergency, radiology, laboratory, and surgery services. The community was invited to tour the $21-million building, which included a new $600,000 x-ray room. Simi Valley Mayor Elton Gallegly — now a United States congressman — participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

In 1987, two events dramatically increased the size and scope of Simi Valley Adventist Hospital. The acquisition of the 72-bed Mountain View Medical Center added the South Campus to the hospital, which housed education, home care services, marketing, and the Simi Valley Hospital Foundation.

In addition, the hospital became a general partner in the Aspen Center, a full-service outpatient service with three surgical suites and an extensive diagnostic imaging department, including an MRI unit. The hospital purchased the facility in 1990, and today, the Aspen Outpatient Center continues to play a vital role in the health of our community. Among the facility's services was a mammography and breast health program, which changed its name in 1994 from Aspen Breast Center to Nancy Reagan Breast Center in honor of the former First Lady, who is a breast cancer survivor.

Healthcare services in Simi Valley took a leap forward on December 5, 2002, with a groundbreaking ceremony for Simi Valley Hospital's four-story, 146,000-square-foot Patient Care Tower. Attended by 300 community members and civic leaders, the groundbreaking featured the unveiling of a photograph of hospital founder J.O. Jones, which now hangs in the main lobby of the hospital.

Completed in 2009, the beautiful, four-story structure with a welcoming lobby, chapel, 170 private rooms, medical and surgical rooms and an ICU became the focal point of our campus and stands today as a beacon of care for our community.

In addition, an allocation of funds for a major renovation and building project was announced. Key elements of the project included expanding and modernizing the emergency department, building a cardiac catheterization laboratory, expanding the surgical services department, creating a new gastrointestinal (GI) laboratory, and improving the Aspen Surgery Center, and the Nancy Reagan Breast Center.

Today, Adventist Health Simi Valley is known and celebrated as one of the premier hospitals in Ventura County.