Community Memorial Hospital: Ventura County’s Nonprofit Leader Since 1902

Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, is the flagship facility of Community Memorial Healthcare, the oldest nonprofit hospital-based health system in Ventura County. Founded in 1902, the 242-bed acute care hospital at 147 North Brent Street has served the county for more than 120 years, growing from a single facility into a regional healthcare network that includes a sister hospital in Ojai and more than 20 health centers across west Ventura County.

Overview of Community Memorial Hospital

Community Memorial Hospital is a DNV-accredited, ISO 9001:2015-certified acute care hospital licensed by the California Department of Health Services, earning a 5-Star CMS designation in 2023 as the only hospital in Ventura County to achieve that recognition, placing it in the top 15% of hospitals nationwide.

The hospital is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Its main phone number is (805) 948-5011. Patients manage appointments, records, prescriptions, and billing through the MyChart patient portal at mycmh.org. The hospital comprises two buildings: the original Mountain Tower and the six-story Ocean Tower, which opened in 2018 with 250 private rooms and expanded facilities.

History and Community Memorial Healthcare Network

Community Memorial Healthcare traces its founding to 1902 through the philanthropy of Dr. Cephas L. Bard and his brother Thomas R. Bard, making it the oldest nonprofit hospital-based health system in Ventura County.

Over more than a century, the hospital expanded from a single community facility into a regional healthcare system. Today, Community Memorial Healthcare encompasses the main hospital in Ventura, a sister hospital and skilled nursing facility at Community Memorial Hospital in Ojai, and more than 20 health centers providing primary care, urgent care, specialty services, and residency program training across west Ventura County. The system is governed by a community-owned, not-for-profit structure, with all revenue reinvested into care, facilities, and community programs.

The 2018 opening of the Ocean Tower marked a major expansion, adding a six-story building with 250 private rooms, expanded emergency facilities, updated operating suites, and five catheterization laboratories. The campus also includes two parking structures, two gardens, a community park, and an outdoor dining terrace, creating an environment designed for patient and family comfort alongside clinical excellence.

Heart and Vascular Services

Community Memorial Hospital’s Heart and Vascular program operates five catheterization laboratories and provides a full range of cardiac services from interventional cardiology and electrophysiology to cardiothoracic surgery and cardiac rehabilitation.

The program earned Healthgrades 5-Star recognition for heart failure treatment, reflecting superior clinical outcomes in cardiac care. Structural heart care services address complex valve disease and other structural abnormalities using minimally invasive techniques. The electrophysiology program diagnoses and treats heart rhythm disorders, and cardiovascular imaging services support both diagnosis and procedural guidance. Cardiac rehabilitation services support patient recovery and long-term heart health following cardiac events or procedures.

According to the American Heart Association, hospitals with integrated cardiac catheterization laboratory capacity and structural heart programs demonstrate measurably better outcomes for high-acuity cardiovascular patients than facilities relying on external referrals for these interventions.

Specialties and Clinical Programs

Community Memorial Hospital offers more than 40 specialty services, from bariatric surgery and cancer care to robotic-assisted spine surgery and a 23-bed Level 3 NICU, supported by a full suite of ACR-accredited imaging modalities.

• Addiction medicine
• Bariatric surgery (MBSAQIP-accredited; Blue Distinction Center)
• Behavioral health
• Cancer care, including lung cancer screening
• Cardiothoracic surgery and heart and vascular services
• Critical care
• Dermatology
• Emergency care with 37 private rooms; Geriatric ED Accreditation
• Endocrine and diabetes care
• Gastroenterology
• Imaging: CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, mammography (ACR-accredited)
• Infusion services
• Laboratory (College of American Pathologists-accredited)
• Maternity care: Labor and Delivery, 23-bed Level 3 NICU, OB/GYN (Baby-Friendly designated)
• Neurology, neurosurgery, and brain surgery
• Orthopedics: knee replacement, hip replacement, shoulder surgery, ankle, wrist (Blue Distinction Center+ for Knee and Hip Replacement)
• Pain management
• Palliative and supportive care
• Pediatrics and pediatric surgery
• Plastic surgery
• Primary care
• Pulmonology and pulmonary rehabilitation (AACVPR-certified)
• Rehabilitation therapy: physical, occupational, speech; Parkinson’s disease and neurological rehabilitation
• Rheumatology
• Robotic-assisted surgery including ExcelsiusGPS and ROSA systems
• Skilled nursing
• Spine and brain surgery (Blue Distinction Center+ for Spine Surgery)
• Stroke care (DNV Primary Stroke Center; AHA/ASA GWTG Stroke Gold Plus 2025)
• Urology and urologic surgery
• Women’s health and urogynecology
• Wound care
• Workplace health

Awards, Accreditations, and Quality Recognition

Community Memorial Hospital holds an extensive portfolio of accreditations and quality awards spanning cardiac care, stroke treatment, maternity, orthopedics, imaging, laboratory services, and patient experience.

Graduate Medical Education and Residency Programs

Community Memorial Healthcare operates ACGME-accredited residency programs in family medicine, internal medicine, general surgery, orthopedic surgery, and psychiatry, training physicians who serve Ventura County’s diverse population. The general surgery residency is a five-year program emphasizing abdominal, endocrine, breast, robotic, and gastrointestinal surgery, with rotations in trauma, pediatric surgery, and transplant at affiliated institutions. The internal medicine residency is a three-year program integrating inpatient, outpatient, urgent care, and subspecialty clinical training.

Residents at Community Memorial provide care at Academic Medicine Health Centers in Ventura and Ojai, extending physician access to community members while developing a locally trained physician workforce. Scholarly activity and quality improvement are required of all residents as part of graduation requirements across all programs.

Patient Resources and Visiting Information

Patients and visitors are encouraged to use the public parking structure at 75 North Brent Street, with entrances on Brent Street and Hospital Way. A courtesy shuttle is available for patients needing assistance between the parking structure and hospital entrance; call (805) 948-8115 or (805) 948-8170 to request a ride.

Financial assistance programs are available through the billing and insurance department at mycmh.org/patients-visitors/billing-insurance. Price transparency information, medical records access, and patient rights documentation are published online. The MyChart portal supports appointment scheduling, provider messaging, prescription viewing, lab result access, and bill payment across the full Community Memorial Healthcare network.

For patients in California seeking other award-recognized regional hospitals, America’s Best Contacts and Eyeglasses represents another widely networked California healthcare-adjacent provider, while Carle Richland Memorial Hospital in Illinois and Carris Health Rice Memorial Hospital in Minnesota reflect comparable community hospital models with strong specialty programming in their respective regions.