Dignity Health St. Joseph's Hospital and 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
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
, United States, operated by
Dignity Health
Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West) was a California-based not-for-profit public-benefit corporation that operates hospitals and ancillary care facilities in three states. Dignity Health was the fifth-largest hospital system in th ...
. St. Joseph's is a 607-bed, not-for-profit hospital that provides a wide range of health, social and support services, with special advocacy for the poor and underserved. It is home to the
Barrow Neurological Institute
Barrow Neurological Institute is the world's largest neurological disease
A neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result i ...
, the world's largest dedicated neurosurgical center and a renowned leader in neurosurgical training, research, and patient care.
Services
St. Joseph's is a center for tertiary care, medical education and research. It includes the
Barrow Neurological Institute
Barrow Neurological Institute is the world's largest neurological disease
A neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result i ...
, the Heart & Lung Institute, and a Level I Trauma Center verified 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 ...
. The hospital is also a center for maternity care, orthopedics, oncology and many other medical services.
History
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 ...
came to Phoenix in 1892 to open a parish school. They were successful in that endeavor, but were also affected deeply by the suffering of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
victims. Realizing the most pressing need of the community, the Sisters expanded their original mission and began fund-raising to be able to establish a
sanitarium.
Their efforts paid off. They collected enough money to rent a six-bedroom brick cottage at Fourth and Polk Streets in January 1895. They equipped each room with two beds for tuberculosis patients and created quarters for themselves in the living room. St. Joseph's Sanitarium was born.
Two months later, the Sisters had raised sufficient funds to build a "real hospital." On March 19, 1895, a stake was driven into the ground to mark the site of what would become a hospital housing 24 private rooms that opened onto porches.
Through the years, there were additions to that building, of course, and a devastating fire in 1917, after which the building was reconstructed in just 90 days. The rebuilt facility was adequate for the community for the next 30 years, but the local population was continuing to grow significantly. In 1930, the population of Phoenix was 48,118. By 1945, it had reached nearly 100,000. St. Joseph's Hospital needed a larger facility.
In the mid-1940s, the Sisters purchased of land at Third Avenue and Thomas Road which was then part of an old dairy farm. They were criticized for choosing land so far north of the city, literally out in the country. But the Sisters had foresight and a keen understanding of a good business deal. Those 10 acres cost just $25,000.
In November 1947, a fundraising campaign began to raise money to build the new hospital. The facility opened in July 1953.
In 2010, Bishop
Thomas Olmsted
Thomas James Olmsted (born January 21, 1947) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix in Arizona from 2003 to 2022. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Wichita in Kansas from 200 ...
revoked the hospital's affiliation with the
Roman Catholic Church
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 ...
in a controversy over medical procedures and church teachings (see below).
Facilities
St. Joseph's Hospital also has a Lung Transplant Program, which offers transplants to those individuals diagnosed with high-risk
lung diseases
Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, br ...
. The program is offered through the Center of Thoracic Transplantation and has received accreditation from the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer M ...
(CMS). On April 13, 2007, the hospital performed the first recorded
lung transplant
Lung transplantation, or pulmonary transplantation, is a surgical procedure in which one or both lungs are replaced by lungs from a donor. Donor lungs can be retrieved from a living or deceased donor. A living donor can only donate one lung lobe. ...
in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
. Since then, more than 170 such transplants have been conducted by the program.
Barrow Neurological Institute
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center is home to the
Barrow neurological institute
Barrow Neurological Institute is the world's largest neurological disease
A neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result i ...
(BNI), a nationally ranked program in neurology and neurosurgery.
The BNI has the largest neurosurgery residency program in the United States, as of 2013. The current director of the BNI is vascular neurosurgeon
Robert F. Spetzler, a position he has held since 1986.
Centers for Clinical Research
Dignity Health currently supports 16 internal Institutional Review Boards providing oversight for more than 1,000 clinical trials across the system. Dignity's Human Research Protection Office provides for the regulatory and compliance oversight of all research conducted at Dignity.
Controversies
The hospital in late 2009 had as a patient a mother of four who was 11 weeks pregnant and suffering from a severe case of
pulmonary hypertension. Doctors estimated that her chance of dying if she continued the pregnancy was "close to 100 percent".
An ethics board approved an abortion to save the life of the mother, even though the hospital was Catholic and within the Diocese of Phoenix. A religious sister, Sister Margaret Mary McBride, who was a vice president at the hospital and who concurred in the decision, was
excommunicated
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...
by
Thomas Olmsted
Thomas James Olmsted (born January 21, 1947) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix in Arizona from 2003 to 2022. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Wichita in Kansas from 200 ...
, the Bishop of Phoenix. The case stirred intense debate from within and outside the area. McBride was later returned to good standing with the church, her religious community, and the hospital.
[News Briefs Dec-9-2011]
Mercy nun at hospital that allowed abortion 'no longer excommunicated'
Catholic News Service. Retrieved 2012-03-23. "Sister Margaret 'met the requirements for reinstatement with the church and she is no longer excommunicated. She continues to be a member in good standing with the Sisters of Mercy and is a valued member of the St. Joseph's executive team.'"
Bishop Olmsted asked Catholic Healthcare West to provide a moral analysis of the case. He later issued a decree on 21 December 2010 revoking the hospital's affiliation with the Catholic Church, after months of discussion had failed to induce the hospital management to refuse to perform similar abortions in the future. Olmsted wrote that he could not verify that the hospital provides health care consistent with "authentic Catholic moral teaching."
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Hospital buildings completed in 1953
Hospitals in Arizona
Dignity Health
Christian hospitals
Buildings and structures in Phoenix, Arizona