A nonprofit Seventh-day Adventist health-care corporation established in 1972 as an organization to increase the availability of health manpower in the Northwest and to strengthen the medical work of the church in the region.
Initially NWMF was considered to be primarily a recruiting agency for Portland SDA hospitals and VertiCare, an SDA corporation that was formed in 1972 to establish and manage medical centers, or clinics, in the area of Portland Adventist Hospital and other localities of the region that were in need of both physicians and medical facilities. The foundation served in the beginning as an information clearinghouse on medical practice opportunities in the Portland area and other points of the Northwest. Portland Adventist Hospital was the “parent” organization that instituted the NWMF and VertiCare programs.
As it became apparent that NWMF had potential for a greater role in providing management direction of SDA medical institutions over a wider area—including centralized services such as purchasing, data processing, and public relations—the foundation became the overall entity to coordinate the medical work in the Northwest. In this reorganization Portland Adventist Hospital and VertiCare became subsidiaries of NWMF. The foundation in August 1973, by lease, assumed management control of Tillamook County General Hospital, Tillamook, Oregon, and later in the year, of Walla Walla General Hospital, Walla Walla, Washington.
Other hospitals in the region have expressed interest in NWMF and its potential for strengthening the health-care delivery systems of communities that are currently without adequate medical programs. An aspect of bringing a strong health ministry to these communities is NWMF’s vigorous physician recruitment program, which has encouraged an increasing number of medical personnel to establish themselves in the Northwest.