Our History
Tacoma’s first hospital was the Fannie C. Paddock Memorial Hospital. Founded in 1882, it was named for the wife of Bishop John Paddock, after they journeyed from Brooklyn, New York, to bring medical care to this booming Washington Territory logging town. The health care mission the Paddocks began in a converted dance hall has expanded over the years and more than a century later, has evolved into MultiCare.
As medical needs grew in Tacoma, the Fannie C. Paddock Memorial Hospital was relocated to a more modern facility in 1915 and was renamed Tacoma General Hospital.
Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital & Health Center traces its roots to this era as well. In 1921, the newly formed Tacoma Orthopedic Association began a fundraising drive to provide children with needed medical care. This vision eventually grew into a community effort to build a local children’s hospital.
By 1947, with key funding from the estate of Dr. Albert Bridge, a local physician, the Tacoma Orthopedic Association was able to build a local children’s hospital. In 1955, Mary Bridge's Children’s Hospital opened, named after Dr. Bridge’s mother.
By the 1970s, the demand for more services grew. Tacoma General Hospital opened a regional cancer center and patient care pavilion in 1977.
In 1979, Tacoma General Hospital joined with Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Doctor’s Hospital to form a new, not-for-profit health care corporation. The corporation was called Consolidated Hospitals. It later became MultiCare Medical Center.
Associated Health Services and Hospice of Tacoma joined MultiCare in 1986, establishing home health services.
Allenmore Hospital was purchased by MultiCare from the Humana Corporation in 1989 and MultiCare evolved into a regional provider of medical services, becoming MultiCare Health System.
Population in the South Sound region grew rapidly in the 1990s. MultiCare met the need for community-based health care by opening the system’s first clinic outside Tacoma--Gig Harbor Urgent Care in 1990.
Three years later, the Medical Park at Covington became the first comprehensive outpatient medical center, urgent care and physician office facility in Washington State. It also became the first MultiCare service outside of Pierce County. It is now known as Covington MultiCare Clinic.
In 1994, Kent Medical Center joined MultiCare and work began to establish a network of community physicians. This became the MultiCare Medical Group. Shortly thereafter, the Doctor’s Clinic of Auburn and Auburn Internal Medicine Associates joined MultiCare, giving the citizens of south King County a broad array of conveniently located outpatient and clinic-based services. Clinics also opened in Lakewood, University Place, Westgate and Northshore, making outpatient and clinical care available in Pierce County communities as well.
MultiCare Health System welcomed Good Samaritan Community Healthcare as an affiliate in 2006. Founded in Puyallup in 1952, Good Samaritan serves a growing population in east Pierce County. This affiliation established MultiCare Health System as the largest not-for-profit health care organization in Western Washington, with more than 7,800 employees and 93 sites of care.
MultiCare Health System is now an integrated health care delivery network of four acute care hospitals, community physicians and clinics, working together to provide exceptional health care throughout the region.