In 1866, the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church wanted a health-care institution that, unlike any then existing, would combine all the best reforms—an institute that would use the finest simple, natural remedies and the most excellent professional surgical and medical procedures of the day. They wanted to avoid using the poisonous drugs of the era: calomel, opium, heroin, lunar caustic, prussic acid, antimony, arsenic, mercury, and strychnine. They envisioned an institute in which the spiritual well-being of the patient would be the object of as much concern as the physical. In fact, they saw physical, mental, and spiritual health as vitally interdependent, and they considered health care incomplete if the spiritual atmosphere of the institution did not contribute to the patient's health. This lack had been evident to church leaders in their visits to other institutions.
They noted that Jesus, "the Great Physician," often combined His work of teaching with healing the sick, and noted that He spent more time healing than preaching. The institute was to be a place where His compassion for the suffering would be revealed, where His Spirit would bring peace and rest.
Besides rational treatment of disease, the institute also would emphasize prevention—teaching people how to avoid many illnesses by reforming—"re-forming"—harmful health practices and obeying the laws of health. Therefore, the institute later was to become eminently successful, not only as a hospital but also in its emphasis on healthful living and disease prevention.
In these early days Michigan was considered to be The West. On September 5, 1866, the denomination opened its Western Health Reform Institute, in a small frame cottage in Battle Creek, Michigan, with two physicians, two bath attendants, one untrained nurse, three or four “helpers,” and one patient.
Facilities included an 80-foot windmill capable of filling a barrel in three to five minutes, given a moderate breeze. With a built-in water heater, it was possible to temper the water "to any degree of heat required for the various baths to be given." "Hydrotherapy" eventually became a fundamental method of treatment in the church's worldwide network of sanitariums.
The new Institute, a forerunner of preventive medicine, was a success from the beginning. During the first two months patients came from nine eastern states and Canada, and an announcement in The Health Reformer revealed the Institute’s popularity. “The Health Institute is now in full and successful operation. Its prosperity, considering its age, is far beyond our most [optimistic] expectations…. We have engaged rooms near the Institute for the accommodation of such patients as are able to walk a short distance…in order to leave more room in our own buildings for the accommodation of the more feeble ones.
Two months later, Dr. H. S. Lay, the medical superintendent, announced that every room was occupied in three buildings, and stated, "We do not dare to advertise the institution to any great extent for fear we shall not have place for those that may wish to come." Rates, including room, meals, nursing care, treatments, and medical care, ranged from five to seven dollars per week. Patients came in such large numbers that they had to stay in surrounding farmhouses because there was not room enough for them at the Institute.
The interest was so great; Dr. Lay confronted readers of the Review and Herald with a need to enlarge: We hear from individuals from all parts of the country that are desirous of coming and enjoying the benefits of our Health Institute. And unless we soon have another large building erected for the accommodation of patients, very many of our people who need the benefits of this Institution, will be denied the privilege; but let our buildings be of sufficient capacity, and we can take care of at least one hundred more patients than we now have….”
He appealed for $25,000 and concluded his remarks with three questions: Shall this money be raised immediately and this building erected as soon as possible? Or, shall we continue to do business on as limited a scale as at present, and in a few months from now not be able to receive at the health institute but a very small portion of those that may wish to come? I ask again, What shall be done?”
During its first eleven years, the Health Reform Institute served more than 2,000 patients, with an average of only one death per year. This unusual record projected the new institution to national prominence. And it was set during the ten years before Koch and Pasteur first demonstrated (in 1876) that the anthrax microbe produced the disease anthrax. This discovery implied that specific microbes produce specific diseases, unless precautions are taken to prevent their spread. The Koch/Pasteur discovery opened the era of modern scientific microbiology and forced the generally skeptical medical profession to concede that the sanitary measures recommended by earlier (but less persuasive) researchers—measures such as washing hands thoroughly before examining wounds or before surgery—were necessary to prevent contagion.
The Institute practiced both curative and preventive medicine, but emphasized prevention. Patients came to be healed and underwent hydrotherapy treatments or surgery. But great efforts were made to teach them how to prevent illness and how to promote and preserve health.