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• 1 2020-08-03T13:45:20-07:00 Railroad Hospitals 4 hospitals plain text plain 2020-09-08T12:07:48-07:00 In response to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, railroad companies to begin offering medical care and insurance to their workers. The underlying reasoning was that workers with access to medical care would be less likely to either strike or sue. Railroad companies pioneered company-sponsored insurance programs and, later, mandatory physical exams for prospective employees. On the east coast, railway companies found it easiest to enter into agreements with existing doctors and hospitals. In the west, however, hospitals were few and far between, and railroad companies preferred to simply build their own.
  
  The Northern Pacific Hospital in Missoula was constructed in 1884 as the second of seven hospitals owned and operated by the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association. The hospital treated railroad workers for injuries and illnesses incurred on the job. The association was not entirely altruistic – in exchange for benefits, workers waived the right to sue the Northern Pacific for work-related injuries.
  
  Despite the obvious self-interest on the part of the Northern Pacific, its hospitals provided medical care for thousands of employees a year. Services ranged from routine checkups and treatments to life-saving surgical procedures. The association also provided a training program for nurses whose graduates went on to work in both NPHA hospitals and other establishments.
  
  In 1967, the Northern Pacific Hospital in Missoula was renamed Missoula General Hospital, a name which it kept until its final closure in 1985.
  
  
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