WLM | health
EDICAL CENTER
op 100 Rural Hospitals
S
tar Valley Medical Center is an award winning Critical Access facility with 20 hospital beds, 24 long-term
beds and almost 300 employees. SVMC has earned awards and grants for specialized equipment that catch the
attention of medical professionals across the country, while striving to bring a wide variety of treatment options
and the finest local health care to the citizens of Star Valley. As with many frontier communities, health care has
certainly taken a while to evolve to this point.
As with many doctors while our state was in its infancy, one of Star Valley’s first doctors, George West, started
practicing medicine from his Afton home in 1904. He performed operations in his kitchen for 43 years until the first
hospital was set up in the old LDS Tithing Building in Afton. When that one closed, another was set up downtown.
Eventually a small facility was built at the corner of Adams Street and Fourth Avenue in Afton.
In 1973, a 15 bed unit was established, and by 1980 all medical services were centralized there, with Intermountain
Health Care (IHC) at the helm. Thanks to generous donations and state grants, a 24 bed long-term care center was
added adjacent to the hospital in 1997. In 1998, IHC discontinued management of the hospital.
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