History

Caring for Council Bluffs Since 1886

In 1886, Jennie Edmundson Memorial Hospital, the first hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa, opened in a five-room cottage at 312 Williams St.

After more than 130 years, Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital continues to be the local leader of innovation and advancement in patient care. Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital is the first in the region to implement a variety of sophisticated health care technology, diagnostics, treatments and other services,

Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital was named for the late wife of J.D. Edmundson, an attorney, teacher and real estate broker, who provided the $50,000 gift necessary to obtain the land that houses the hospital to this day. When he died, Edmundson left additional money for the support of the hospital and asked that a bouquet of roses be placed beneath Jennie’s portrait each year on her birthday, a tradition that continues today.

Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital Firsts

• First provider in southwestern Iowa to establish an accredited cancer care program and to open a breast health center.
• First in Omaha Metropolitan area to offer digital mammography.
• Established the first nursing school west of the Mississippi River.
• First in the region to utilize antibiotics in the treatment and control of infectious diseases.
• First provider in southwestern Iowa to establish a sleep center.
• First provider in southwestern Iowa to open a cardiac catheterization lab.
• First provider in southwestern Iowa to implement cardiac rehabilitation services.
• First provider in the community to offer single-vessel angioplasty.
• First provider in southwestern Iowa to provide radiation oncology.