Dignity Health-Glendale (Calif.) Memorial Hospital and Health Center is marking its centennial, reflecting what its president and CEO described as a long-standing commitment to healing and human kindness.
“We’re incredibly excited about the centennial,” Betsy Hart, MSN, RN, said. “For Glendale, our greatest strength remains our people and the deep connection we have with the Glendale community. We’re excited to build upon this legacy for the next 100 years. Innovation will continue to be important, but we’ll always stay grounded in our commitment to human kindness.”
Established in 1926 by six community members, Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center initially opened with 47 beds, according to a news release shared with Becker’s. Today, the hospital operates as part of Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health through its affiliation with Dignity Health.
The hospital operates 334 beds, serves more than 70,000 patients annually and employs about 1,300 people. It was the first community hospital in Glendale to offer accredited robotic-assisted surgery and the first in Los Angeles County to offer accredited colorectal surgery.
Ms. Hart spoke with Becker’s about the milestone and where the organization is headed next.
Editor’s note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: As you look ahead to 2026 and beyond, what feels most urgent or important for Glendale Memorial, and has anything surprised you about where the organization needs to go next?
Betsy Hart: In terms of what feels most important or urgent, it’s the continued effort to proactively focus on not just treating illness, but fostering community health. That includes expanding preventive care, building community partnerships focused on social determinants of health and developing robust wellness programs. We’re already in that space, but we want to deepen that work.
Another area with urgency is making sure we continue to strategically invest in technologies and methodologies that genuinely improve patient outcomes and operational efficiencies. As healthcare becomes more complex and challenging, we need to ensure we have the right technology so our providers and caregivers can continue doing the amazing work they do at the bedside.
And to your other question — anything surprising — it’s not necessarily a surprise, but I’d say the speed of digital integration and virtual care adoption. We’ve fully embraced telehealth, but the pace and necessity of integrating these solutions across the patient journey has accelerated beyond prior predictions. It’s not just about convenience; it’s about access and about making healthcare more proactive and predictive. The speed of that evolution has been a bit surprising.
Q: Glendale Memorial has grown tremendously over the last century. What do you see as the most defining characteristics of the hospital today?
BH: One defining characteristic of Glendale is our unwavering commitment to human kindness and personalized patient care. That’s not just a slogan — it has been our foundational principle since we started in 1926. From a patient’s perspective, it means seeing each person as a unique story, ensuring our teams prioritize empathy and tailoring care plans to address not only physical needs but also emotional and spiritual well-being.
Another defining characteristic is our clinical excellence, particularly in specialized fields. We’ve built dedicated teams for specific services and invested in achieving accreditations across cardiac care, stroke care and robotic surgery. That reflects the passion and expertise of our physicians, nurses and caregivers. Our people are at the heart of our success; they are the defining characteristic of Glendale Memorial.
Q: Where are you seeing the most exciting clinical or operational progress right now — either through innovation, quality improvement or workforce initiatives?
BH: We’re using quality and data-driven outcomes to guide initiatives. We’re identifying trends, predicting risk for certain patient populations and proactively implementing interventions to improve outcomes. Leveraging analytics to improve safety and reduce risk is an exciting area of innovation. It really demonstrates our commitment to clinical excellence and to ensuring every patient receives the highest quality, safest care possible — always with dignity and human kindness.
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