Our History

John Fitzgibbon Memorial Hospital – Then and Now

John Fitzgibbon, an Irish immigrant who settled in Saline County in the 1800s, saw the need for a hospital in Marshall, Mo. At the time of his death in 1916, Fitzgibbon specified in his will that a board of directors be named, and they were to oversee the construction of a hospital. The hospital was to operate as a private, not-for-profit corporation.

Fitzgibbon’s estate paid for the construction of the original hospital. Construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony in March 1922. The first patient was admitted approximately one year later, in April 1923.

Patient load increased in the 1950s. To alleviate this overcrowding, the hospital was expanded to 90 beds. The patient load had increased six-fold from the first year of operation. In 1954 more than 1,800 patients were admitted, and there were 310 babies born.

As the health care needs of area residents continued to change, the Fitzgibbon Hospital Board in 1987 decided they could address the concerns shown by the local community, help meet the need for expanded services and recruit additional physicians by constructing a new building. They chose a 73-acre site west of Highway 65, across from the Saline County Fairgrounds. The new Fitzgibbon Hospital was opened in July of 1991.

This 60-bed, acute care facility located within a 63,000 square foot building, boasts some of the latest advances in medical technology, not to mention an expert staff of over 30 physicians, 90 RNs and 60 LPNs. With over 475 full-time and part-time workers, Fitzgibbon Hospital is Saline County’s third largest employer. Its annual payroll is $21.5 million. We offer some of the latest advances in medical technology delivered by an expert staff. But the care you receive at Fitzgibbon is marked by a unique difference: personal attention.

The latest expansion project, which included 28,000 square feet of new spaces and 13,000 square feet of redesigned and remodeled space, opened in the winter of 2007. The expansion features a new women’s imaging center and houses the outpatient clinics for specialties such as orthopedics, pain management and wound care.

Fitzgibbon Hospital is a leader in central Missouri in providing quality, compassionate care and personal attention to our patients. Our post-dismissal patient surveys, conducted at random, consistently recognize the excellence in caring and compassion shown by everyone from the physicians and nurses to laboratory staff and rehabilitative therapists. Even non-direct patient care areas like environmental services, dietary and financial counseling get high marks for both professionalism and friendliness.

This same culture of personal compassion and caring is evident throughout Fitzgibbon Hospital, as employees band together in an unbeatable team -- a team working for your good health.

As a non-profit community hospital, Fitzgibbon Hospital is vital to the health and well being of the communities it serves.