Scripps Mercy Hospital is a private

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

hospital located in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Founded in 1890, it is the oldest hospital in San Diego County and has campuses in

Chula Vista Chula Vista (; ) is the second-largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh largest city in Southern California, the fifteenth largest city in the state of California, and the 78th-largest city in the United States. The popul ...

and Hillcrest. The hospital has 700 acute-care-licensed beds and employs 1,300 physicians. The Hillcrest campus is home to one of only two regional Level I

Trauma Centers A trauma center (or trauma centre) is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. A trauma center may also refer to an emergenc ...

and receives more than 2,100 trauma patients each year.

History

In 1890, the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

opened a five-bed

dispensary A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital, industrial plant, or other organization that dispenses medications, medical supplies, and in some cases even medical and dental treatment. In a traditional dispensary set-up, a pharmacist dispen ...

called St. Joseph's in

Downtown San Diego Downtown San Diego is the city center of San Diego, California, the eighth largest city in the United States. In 2010, the Centre City area had a population of more than 28,000. Downtown San Diego serves as the cultural and financial center and ...

, with the permission of Bishop

Francisco Mora y Borrell Francisco Mora y Borrell (November 25, 1827 – August 3, 1905) was a Spanish-born prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the third Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles, serving from 1878 to 1896. Biography Early life Mora was born on November 25, 1827 ...

. The dispensary was replaced by a three-story hospital in Hillcrest called St. Joseph's Sanitarium in 1891, which was renamed to St. Joseph's Hospital in 1904. It remained the sole hospital for San Diego, until County Hospital was built at the top of Sixth Street, above Mission Valley, in 1903. In 1921, as St. Joseph's Sanitarium, the hospital became the first hospital accredited by the

American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons is an educational association of surgeons created in 1913.American College of Surgeons Online "What is the American College of Surgeons?"/ref> See also *American College of Physicians The American College o ...

that is west of the Mississippi River. The current hospital building, also in Hillcrest, was built in 1925 and named Mercy Hospital. A second hospital, Bay General Hospital, was established in

. In 1986, Bay General joined the

Scripps Health Scripps Health is a nonprofit health care system based in San Diego, California. The system includes five hospitals and 19 outpatient facilities, and treats a half-million patients annually through 2,600 affiliated physicians. The system also inc ...

system, as did Mercy Hospital in 1995 (which then became Scripps Mercy Hospital). Prior to its being under Scripps Health, it was part of Catholic Health Care West. Even after it joining Scripps Health, it remains a Catholic hospital. In 2004, the two hospitals were combined at the Hillcrest campus. As recently as 2015, Nuns of Sisters of Mercy continue to work at the hospital, but fulfilling more spiritual needs rather than direct care.

Gallery

Image:Scripps_Mercy_Hospital_Trauma_Room.jpg, The trauma room at Scripps Mercy. Image:Scripps_Mercy_Roof.jpg, View from the roof. Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego - 4.jpg, As seen from 8th Avenue.

References

{{authority control Catholic hospitals in North America Hospitals in San Diego Hospitals established in 1890 Trauma centers Catholic health care