The first hospital in Muskogee, and in Indian Territory, was St. Mary's Sanitarium, founded in 1893 by Dr. Francis Bartow Fite. It was located on South Main Street. The name of the hospital was changed in 1906 to Martha Robb Hospital, in honor of the deceased daughter of Dr. Fite's close friend, A.W. Robb.
The Physicians and Surgeons Hospital, a city-owned and operated hospital, was built on South Border Street in 1911. That same year, the Oklahoma Baptist Memorial Hospital was built on North Sixth Street.
The city soon outgrew the Physicians and Surgeons Hospital, and construction was begun on a new hospital on Agency Hill in Honor Heights (the present site of the Veterans Administration Hospital). The hospital, named Muskogee General Hospital, was in operation from 1922 to 1926. Muskogee citizens were concerned about the distance to the hospital, two miles west of the city, and sought a site nearer the center of town. The hospital was sold to the Veterans Administration in 1926 for $120,000 and the city bought the old Spaulding Institute building at 519 Baltimore (Baltimore and Okmulgee Streets).
Renovation of the Spaulding building took two years and was opened July 1, 1928. This new hospital was called Muskogee General Hospital and operated at that site until 1958. The Spaulding building was later demolished, but a nurses dormitory, which was added during World War II, was preserved and is now used as a senior citizens' center.
After once again outgrowing their hospital, Muskogee voters approved the issuance of bonds in the amount of $1,383,000 for the purchase and construction of a new hospital at its current location, 300 Rockefeller Drive. The new street was named in honor of Ms. Edna Rockefeller, the hospital's first director of nursing, who held a variety of positions during her 40-year employment at MGH. The new hospital, with 110 beds, opened on April 8, 1959. It was estimated to have a total cost of $2,048,000 for building and equipment. Federal matching funds through the Hill-Burton Program were obtained in the amount of $665,000. In addition, proceeds from the Memorial Room Furnishing and Equipment Fund in the amount of $16,000, along with $26,000 in hospital funds, were added to finance the building fund.
The Muskogee Hospital Trust was created in October, 1958, by the hospital board, the Mayor of Muskogee and the Muskogee City Council. The purpose of the trust was to finance future municipal hospital facilities. Even as the new hospital was opened, plans were immediately underway to provide a 65-bed addition to the hospital. This first expansion was begun in April, 1959, the same month the new hospital opened. It was completed a year later at a total cost of $652,000. It was financed through the issue of $460,000 in Revenue Trust Bonds which were retired over a period of 15 years from the income of the Hospital's operation. A total of $192,000 in matching funds through the Hill-Burton Program was also obtained to help finance the cost of the expansion.
The hospital operated with 175 beds until 1961 while demand for hospital services grew from residents of Muskogee and surrounding counties. The hospital was frequently overcrowded and the number of private patient rooms were reduced in order to accommodate the demand. In early 1962, tentative plans for expansion of patient rooms and other service areas were made. A general obligation municipal bond issue for hospital expansion in the amount of $500,000 was submitted for a vote of Muskogee taxpayers on May 15, 1962. It failed to carry.
The 84-bed Oklahoma Baptist Hospital closed on September 15, 1962, creating even more overcrowding. Immediate plans for expansion were developed through the cooperation of the Hospital Board, Mayor and City Council. A decision was made to split the overall expansion program into two stages in order to increase the bed capacity in the least possible time and to provide expanded service areas and facilities during a second stage.
The first expansion, begun in February, 1963, was financed by proceeds from an extension of the revenue trust bond issue in the amount of $266,000 to be retired from future hospital income and a matching amount of $266,000 in Federal Hill-Burton Funds. This expansion added 50 beds, practical nurse training facilities, and employee dining room, a covered solarium, air conditioning in the kitchen, housekeeping facilities and the pneumatic tube system. During the construction period, the hospital had to use waiting rooms, a sun parlor and corridors to accommodate the additional patient load created by the closing of the Baptist Hospital.
Two years later, another expansion provided additional lobbies and office areas, added two operating rooms, six ICU beds, a new post-operative recovery room and a new emergency department. Laboratory and x-ray facilities were expanded, as well as central sterile supply and pharmacy, a new entrance, physicians lounge and medical library.
A fourth expansion project, completed in 1969, added the Continuing Care Center for chronic rehabilitation patients. That year also marked the first decade at Rockefeller Drive.
A fifth expansion, completed in 1977, doubled the hospital's square footage and increased bed capacity to 366. This expansion added the current medical and surgical towers and intensive care unit. Muskogee General Hospital changed its name to Muskogee Regional Medical Center in 1984 in order to more adequately reflect the hospital's regional scope of services.
Most recent renovations include a new cancer treatment center, which was added on the hospital's east side in 1989, and a new, expanded emergency room, which opened in 1996.
