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Overview

Henry J. Kaiser's hospital network opened this facility in Portland, OR, in 1959, naming it after Kaiser's deceased wife Bessie H. Fosburgh Kaiser (1886-1951). This facility replaced a previous Kaiser hospital located in Vancouver, WA.

Building History

Henry John Kaiser (1882-1967) established clinics to provide healthcare for his shipyard workers in the Bay Area and, later, in Portland, OR. Origianlly from NY State, Kaiser moved to Spokane, WA, in 1906. He first worked for a hardware company, and then developed a road paving business that became a major contractor for large infrastructure projects during the Depression. Kaiser became involved in a construction consortium called "Six Companies, Incorporated," that erected the Hoover Dam (1931-1936), Parker Dam (1934-1938), Colorado River Aqueduct (1933-1939) and portions of Grand Coullee Dam (1933-1942). Companies comprising Six Companies, Incorporated, included Kaiser-Bechtel (30% ownership stake); MacDonald and Kahn (20%); Utah Construction Company (20%); Morrison-Knudsen (10%); Pacific Bridge Company (10%); and J.F. Shea Company (10%).

A relentless innovator, Kaiser had an early interest in Henry Ford's mass-production and efficiency engineering ideas. He adapted some of Ford's mass-poduction techniques in shipbuilding by 1939 and established yards in Richmond, CA (Richmond Shipyards established in 12/1940); Portland, OR, (Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, founded 05/1941 and Swan Island Shipyard, formed 1942); and Vancouver, WA, (Vancouver Shipyard, begun 1942). After World War II, Kaiser supervised a sprawling conglomerate with interests in construction, shipbuilding, steel production (begun in Fontana, CA, in 12/1941), aluminum production (established in WA State in 1946), and automobile manufacturing (first, with the Kaiser-Frazer brand active between 1947 and 1953 and, later, with his acquisition of the Willys-Overland Company in 1953.) With his purchase of Willys, Kaiser took control of the popular Jeep brand. The Kaiser Family owned Kaiser-Willys until its sale to the American Motors Corporation in 1969-1970.

Participation in one business often led Kaiser to start another. Road-paving led to infrastructure construction, which prompted him to become interested in shipbuilding. Kaiser had a genius for rethinking production processes, particularly in the shipbuilding industry. He employed new concepts in shipbuilding, switching from the use of rivets to welding ship hulls, thereby enabling a wider percentage of the population to do the work. Dwight J. Zimmerman, writing for the Defense Media Network.com, observed: "Kaiser adapted mass production techniques to shipbuilding, instituting modular construction and assembly techniques in which the ship sections were welded together instead of riveted. In addition to being faster, welding required less skill than riveting, an important factor because Kaiser’s yard crews contained workers new to shipyard work, including women, because able-bodied men were being drafted to serve in uniform. In addition, Kaiser was in the vanguard of companies hiring African-Americans." (See Dwight Jon Zimmerman, Defense Media Network.com, "Henry J. Kaiser and the Liberty Ships," published 06/24/2021, accessed 11/08/2023.) His involvement with dam construction projects alerted Kaiser to the large amounts of low-cost hydroelectric energy being generated in WA State, where he started his energy-intensive Kaiser Alumnium enterprise. His interest in aluminum and steel production led him to automobile manufacture by the late 1940s.

Kaiser got into healthcare through his association with the surgeon Sidney Garfield (1906-1984), who developed a group-practice medical program for workers at the Grand Coullee Dam project in the 1930s. Garfield and Kaiser created a non-profit, medical foundation to serve Richmond shipyard workers in mid-1942, and later for workers at the Portland and Vancouver port facilities.

Physician Ian C. Macmillan wrote a history of the Kaiser Permanente healthcare system in Oregon, which was also published in the Oregon Encyclopedia.org: "In July 1942, the Henry J. Kaiser Company established the Permanente Foundation in California, and within months the Northern Permanente Foundation was serving Portland-Vancouver shipyard workers. 'Permanente' is derived from Permanente Creek on Black Mountain near Cupertino, California. Henry Kaiser's first cement plant was adjacent to the creek. As the shipyards began closing down during the last year of World War II, the termination of the health plan was imminent and a small number of physicians decided to offer a health plan to the community. The Permanente Foundation Health Plan thrived in California, but it initially faltered in the Oregon-Washington area. Dr. Ernest Saward led the organization through this difficult time. In 1959, Bess Kaiser Hospital was completed in north Portland, and the Vancouver Northern Permanente Hospital closed. The result was a substantial growth in health plan membership. The name Kaiser replaced the name Permanente for the title of the health plan; the medical groups retained the Permanente name. In the early 1950s, Henry Kaiser involved himself more in the healthcare organization and interfered with physician management. In 1955, the differences between Kaiser and the physicians developed into a crisis, which was solved by a codified agreement regarding responsibilities and finances. The agreement allowed a healthy growth of a system with successful partnerships between regional Health Plan managers and regional medical directors. (See Ian Macmillan, Oregon Encyclopedia.org, "Kaiser Permanente in Oregon," accessed 11/08/2023.)

This small hospital, part of the Kaiser Permanente healthcare network, opened in the summer of 1959. The first patients from the Kaiser hospital in Vancouver, WA, were scheduled to be moved in on 07/11/1959. (See Ian C. Macmillan, Kaiser Permanente,org, "Physician publishes story of Permanente in the Northwest," published 01/19/2012, accessed 11/08/2023.) Bess Kaiser Hospital operated until 1998, when it was renovated to become office space for both physicians and general business usage.

By 2023, doctors still maintained their offices there as did the German company Adidas America, for its offices and those of its subsidiary, Salomon North America, Incorporated.

PCAD id: 24848