They were called Hill-Burton Funds, the federal money designated to help hospitals across the nation improve their facilities in the years following the Great Depression. But to apply for Hill-Burton money, a hospital had to be municipally owned and debt-free, and the Benevolent Society hospital was neither. So a board of trustees was appointed in October 1943, and Decatur and Morgan County officials began raising money to pay off the Benevolent Society Hospital's $18,000 debt.

City officials were careful to point out that the changeover was not a result of any "dire financial condition on the part of the Benevolent Hospital," but simply a need for government help. Although the hospital had consistently operated at a deficit, the community over the years had raised thousands of dollars to support it.
Decatur General became the community hospital's official name, the debt on the hospital was paid, and the municipal board, comprised of representatives from both the city and Morgan County, began operating the facility in 1945. Application for the Hill-Burton Funds was first made in 1948.

At the time, Decatur General had less than 150 employees, and a stay in a hospital cost between $18 and $25 a day. Registered nurses on second and third shifts made $300 a month plus two meals a day and uniform laundering. And the hospital's reported gross income was about $400,000 a year.

But that would soon change. Decatur was ready for a new facility with the capacity to keep up with the rapidly changing world of medicine.

By the time the electric streetcars had stopped running along Bank Street in the 1950's, the city's population had swelled to 30,000 people, and exciting plans for Decatur's "Million-Dollar Hospital" were well underway. The federal government contributed nearly $700,000, Alabama contributed $60,000, and local funds made up the remaining $500,000.

For city officials, the project served as a landmark community event. A Decatur Daily editorial said the city would no longer have to "apologize" for its hospital. With the addition, the editorial claimed, "one more of our shortcomings goes into discard."

When the hospital hosted an open house in the fall of 1958 to display the new facility, more than 2,000 people turned out to see the "latest ideas in hospital design," according to newspaper reports. Central air conditioning and the newest in hospital and waiting room furniture were among the amenities. Ideas to make operating rooms and nurseries safe from infection were among the necessities.

The building was designed so that upper floors could be constructed on its roof, and planning for these additional floors was in the works even before the new facility opened. Though construction to add bed capacity would be repeated again and again over the next few decades, the 1958 construction became the hospital's footprint and the foundation for its future.

As the hospital entered the modern era of medicine, exciting growth continued as services were added year by year: pediatrics, physical therapy, mental health, and cardiovascular intensive care units all became important new additions to the hospital's community healthcare commitment.

An ambitious physical addition was begun in 1982, when ground was broken for construction of the $18-million Raymond A. Britain Wing. Named for the beloved longtime hospital board chairman, the five-story addition added new intensive and coronary care units, psychiatric and nursing units, a chapel, gift shop and administrative offices. Its completion in 1986 was followed closely by the establishment of Decatur General Oncology Center in 1987, the mammography center in 1990, and the adjoining Medical Plaza office building, parking deck and skywalk in 1995.

Meanwhile, the hospital's second campus, Decatur General West Behavioral Medicine Center, opened in 1993, and two outpatient physical therapy clinics - RehabAccess East and West - were established. The two would later be combined into the RehabAccess facility now operating on Danville Road.
New services inside the hospital such as cardiovascular procedures, have been accompanied by service opportunities outside the campus. Camp Bluebird, North Alabama's only adult cancer camp, was established in 1989; support groups and education opportunities have been ongoing for decades; and the Community Free Clinic, established in 2004, offers medical care to uninsured residents.

The century has turned and reflections of Decatur General Hospital now span nine decades. The ladies who cared for their fellow Decatur residents during that yellow fever epidemic left a legacy of caring that is unequaled in North Alabama.

The times have changed.

The facility has changed.