St. Vincent's Medical Center Southside is a not-for-profit,
faith-based
Faith-based may refer to:
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* Faith Based (film)
''Faith Based'' is a 2020 American comedy film ...
hospital located in the southern part of
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
Ascension Health
Ascension is one of the largest private healthcare systems in the United States, ranking second in the United States by number of hospitals as of 2019. It was founded as a nonprofit Catholic healthcare network in 1999.
By the end of 2021, Asc ...
. Founded as St. Luke's Hospital in 1873, it was Jacksonville's first private hospital and is Florida's oldest private hospital.Clinton, Michael "St. Luke's Hospital changes name" Jacksonville Business Journal, January 5, 2012
History
Three local Jacksonville women began St. Lukes in 1873 to serve people in the area during the winter tourist season. Susan Hartridge, Myra H. Mitchell, and Anna Doggett rented the first structure, a farmhouse with two rooms. A new building was erected three years later, but was never occupied due to arson.Patton, Charlie "St. Luke's becomes St. Vincent’s Medical Center Southside" Florida Times-Union, January 5, 2012
The subsequent 1878 building was also located in the downtown core, but survived the
Great Fire of 1901
The Great Fire of 1901 was a conflagration that occurred in Jacksonville, Florida on May 3, 1901. It was one of the worst disasters in Florida history and the third largest urban fire in the U.S., next to the Great Chicago Fire, and the 1906 S ...
, which consumed nearly every structure in the city. That building was outgrown and a new facility was acquired in the
Springfield
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area, where the hospital was located from 1914 to 1984.
The 1878 Old St. Luke's Hospital was purchased by the
The current facility was opened in December 1984, contained 289 beds, and offered general acute care services and specialized medical/surgical procedures. It is located in the fast-growing southeast quadrant of Jacksonville, along J. Turner Butler Boulevard, an expressway which serves as a major thoroughfare to and from the
Jacksonville Beaches
The Jacksonville Beaches, or Jax Beaches known locally as "The Beaches", are a group of towns and communities on the northern half of an unnamed barrier island on the US state of Florida's First Coast, all of which are excluded cities or parts of ...
.
Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staff, ...
tertiary referral hospital
A tertiary referral hospital (also called a tertiary hospital, tertiary referral center, tertiary care center, or tertiary center) is a hospital that provides tertiary care, which is a level of health care obtained from specialists in a large hos ...
primarily to attract difficult and complex cases, which was Mayo's specialty. St. Luke's became an affiliate of Mayo Clinic and the admitting hospital for Mayo Clinic Jacksonville patients. Mayo also wanted to prove that there was sufficient demand to justify expending a huge investment for a new facility. Purchasing an existing hospital was more economical in case the north Florida location didn't work out. There were actually two separate staffs, one working for Mayo, and the other for local doctors and patients with "normal" medical needs.Cox, Jeremy "Mayo, St. Luke's continue on different courses 1 year after split" Florida Times-Union, April 9, 2009 Both Mayo's main Jacksonville campus as well as St. Luke's are located off of the J. T. Butler Expressway, approximately 10 miles apart.
In May 2001, the Mayo Clinic revealed that they intended to construct a new teaching hospital on the grounds of its main campus and sell St. Luke's to St. Vincent's HealthCare."Mayo Clinic expansion has never stopped" Jacksonville Business Journal, October 18, 2010 Just prior to Mayo's announcement,
Baptist Health
Baptist Health, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is a faith-based, non-profit health system comprising six hospitals with 1,168 beds, a cancer center, four satellite emergency departments and more than 200 patient access points of care, ...
stated their intention of building a new hospital, Baptist Medical Center South, near the southern Duval county line.
Jacksonville's Memorial Hospital (owned by
HCA
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* Hall–Carpenter Archives, an archive of materials related to gay activism ...
), fearing a decline in their business, objected to the construction of Mayo's new facilities. They filed an appeal with the state's ''Agency for Health Care Administration'', which halted action until the appeal was dismissed in March, 2005. On July 1, 2005 Mayo executed a
Leaseback
Leaseback, short for "sale-and-leaseback", is a financial transaction in which one sells an asset and leases it back for the long term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it. The transaction is generally done f ...
with St. Vincent's Health System for $150 million. Mayo continued to operate St. Luke's for three years during construction of the new Mayo Clinic Hospital, and transferred 214 patient beds to the new facility when it was completed.Karkario, Urvaksh "Mayo completing sale of St. Luke's today" Florida Times-Union, June 30, 2005
On April 18, 2008, ambulances ferried 67 patients from St. Luke's to the new facility at Mayo Clinic Hospital, and St. Vincent's Health System assumed control of St. Luke's Hospital.
Unfortunately for St. Luke's, the new Mayo hospital and the new facility Baptist South, diverted patients who previously would have gone to St. Luke's. The administrators anticipated a drop, and closed the fourth and fifth floors, reducing the number of beds available from 313 to 145. The latest available yearly statistics show that the emergency room had 23,549 patients, they admitted 7,279 persons with 1,264 outpatient and 1,492 inpatient surgeries performed.
In early 2012, St. Vincent's HealthCare announced name changes for the facilities in their group. St. Vincent's Hospital became St. Vincent's Medical Center Riverside; St. Luke's Hospital was renamed St. Vincent's Medical Center Southside; and a new hospital under construction will be named, St. Vincent's Medical Center Clay County.
As of 2020, the hospital is undergoing a $26 million renovation.