Mercy Hospital Joplin, formerly known as St. John's Regional Medical Center, is a

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

in Joplin,

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The hospital is famous for suffering devastating damage in the

2011 Joplin tornado A devastating EF5-rated multiple-vortex tornado struck Joplin, Missouri on the evening of Sunday, May 22, 2011. Part of a larger late-May tornado outbreak, the tornado touched down just west of Joplin and intensified very quickly, reaching a ...

. The original storm-ravaged building was demolished in 2013. Following a succession of temporary structures, the hospital reopened in a new location in 2015.

History

According to the hospital, it was founded on October 24, 1896, by Mother Mary Sullivan, and 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 ...

founded in Ireland for this work around the world. Appoline A. Blair is sometimes credited as playing a philanthropic role in the founding of St John's. The facility was expanded in 1968 to include two connecting buildings of seven and nine floors. On May 22, 2011, the hospital was seriously damaged by a tornado from the

tornado outbreak sequence of May 21–26, 2011 The tornado outbreak sequence of May 21–26, 2011 was one of the largest tornado outbreaks on record which affected the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States. Most of the tornadoes developed in a corridor from Lake Superior southw ...

. Five patients were killed inside the hospital due to electrical failure and surviving patients were evacuated from the health facility, which sustained major structural damage. One of the hospital's towers was rotated four inches on its foundation. In the immediate aftermath of the tornado, the

Missouri National Guard The Missouri National Guard (MONG), commonly known as the Missouri Guard, is a component of the Army National Guard and Missouri State Department of the National Guard. It is composed of Army and Air National Guard units. The Department office is ...

established a field hospital at

Joplin Memorial Hall Joplin may refer to: Places in the United States *Joplin, Missouri **Joplin, Missouri metropolitan area * Joplin, Montana * Joplin, Texas *Joplin, Virginia (now extinct) *Joplin, West Virginia People *Joplin (surname), people with the surname, mo ...

. Mere hours after one of the deadliest recorded tornadoes in U.S. history hit Joplin, the Missouri Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) started working to create a plan to help the survivors. The following Wednesday, DMAT deployed their 8,000 square foot

field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile A ...

to temporarily replace the destroyed hospital. Six days after the tornado, on May 29, 2011 St. John'
medical staff
gave medical treatment to their community in th
BLU-MED
field hospital. This temporary hospital is now the home of the Kansas City University-Joplin School of Osteopathic Medicine. The existing hospital was structurally unsafe and was eventually demolished. Temporary buildings were constructed nearby for work to continue supporting the community. One week after the tornado, St. John's (now known as Mercy) announced they would rebuild. Mercy has rebuilt the hospital at Interstate 44 and Hearnes Boulevard; it opened in 2015, replacing the facility destroyed by the tornado. There is also an auxiliary facility on the northeast side.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.mercy.net/practice/mercy-hospital-joplin Buildings and structures in Joplin, Missouri Hospital buildings completed in 1968 1896 establishments in Missouri 2015 establishments in Missouri 2011 disestablishments in Missouri Joplin, Missouri