Caverna’s History
Dec. 1963
The need for a hospital in Hart County and the surrounding area was recognized and planning began. At the time, the estimated cost of the project was $600,000 for a 30 bed hospital; it was agreed that $300,000 was to be raised by the community and the remainder would be provided in the form of money from a federal grant.
January 1964
The current site of Caverna Memorial Hospital was approved.
May 1964
A "kick off" dinner was held at the Hart restaurant in Munfordville. This began the process of fund raising for the new hospital, and by the end of the following month, $349,000 had been raised by the community. Among the early fund raising organizers were local attorney Charles Richardson and local teacher, Preston Mansfield.
July 1965
The ground breaking ceremony was held to signal the beginning of construction for the new hospital. Construction would span more than a year and a half.
May 1967
Construction of the new hospital was complete, and an open house was held. The open house saw more than 2,500 people tour the hospital.
June 5, 1967
Caverna Memorial Hospital opened and the first patient was treated.
From its inception, Caverna Memorial Hospital has been a busy place! The early days saw the Emergency Room treating all types of injuries; the Operating Room was conducting surgeries; the maternity ward was busy delivering babies; and most of the time the inpatient rooms were full with patients. At one time there were triplets and twins delivered within a short period of time along with other babies and the nursery was full of babies. Many of Hart counties resident’s were born in this hospital.
We held our 40th anniversary celebration in 2007. We had an open house and hundreds of visitors. Of the people who visited, the triplets along with their Mother and the first patient on the display here visited. The triplets wanted to know about the place they were born and their Mother told them about being here and the first patient told us about her experience of being the first patient.
How Things Have Changed
A lot has changed since then. There has been one expansion since then. The ER entrance used to be at the rear of the hospital. The front where the ER and radiology departments are was added on in 1999.
The hospital has changed a lot too. It is no longer the busy acute care facility it once was. Times have changed, medicine has changed. There are larger more advanced facilities close by. Travel is easier that it was in the 1960’s. To remain an asset to the community the hospital changed to what is called a “Critical Access Facility”. This means that our job is to receive the patient, stabilize and send them to a larger hospital for more advanced care, treat and send them home or schedule follow up with their primary care physician. Our average length of stay for a patient in the hospital is no more than 4 days.
What We Do Now
We do have an ER that is staffed 24/7 with a Physician and RN’s. We are capable of Advanced Emergency Medical Treatment, CT, X-rays, We can put a patient on a ventilator if needed and we can fly a patient out by helicopter. There is a helipad out back. The ER is of great importance since we are in a rural area there can be any type of accident at any time such farming accidents. Dart and T. Marzetti’s factories are nearby and it is good that we are close to them also. There are accidents that are frequently brought to our ER off of I-65. And we do get people from out of state who are driving through on I-65 and follow the signs to the nearest hospital.
Our radiology department is fully equipped and can do most any type of emergency tests needed.
We also perform many outpatient tests such as MRI, CT, or Mammography.
We do a lot of outpatient lab tests for local physicians and also for physicians in other cities such as Louisville or Bowling Green and fax results to the office. This saves the patient time and travel.
We also have a respiratory therapy department. We offer outpatient services there also. We can do pulmonary function testing.
We have outpatient clinics that operate here in our hospital to bring specialized medical care closer to home for the residents of Hart County.
Pulmonology Clinic –Dr. Michael Zacheck (Graves-Gilbert Clinic)
Opthomology Surgery Clinic – Dr. Brockman (New Albany Indiana) He does cataract surgeries and various other outpatient eye surgeries
Cardiology Clinic – Dr. Holt (E-town) Stress tests on treadmill, Echocardiograms, Holter Monitors
Gastrointestinal Clinic/Procedures – Dr. Curtiss (Bowling Green) Upper GI (endoscopies) Lower GI (colonoscopies)
Are any of you interested in getting into the healthcare field?
Future Of The Hospital
Land purchased in 2009 –The total hospital property is now 48 acres. The plans include the possibility of a fitness center for use by the residents of Hart County and a Medical Office Building. The ground has been surveyed, tested to ensure that we can build and an architect has started on plans for a Medical Office Building.
In addition to all of the specialists we have 2 physician’s offices. One office in Horse Cave, the other in Munfordville. The Munfordville office was moved in Sept. 2010 to a new building with a lot more space and updated equipment. The plan is to also move the Horse Cave Office into the new Medical Office Building when it is complete.