Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children's Hospital

Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children's Hospital
Providence Health Care
Sacred Heart Medical Center
Geography
Location	Inland Northwest region (multi-state), Washington, United States
Organization
Care system	Public, Medicaid, Medicare
Hospital type	Nonprofit, Catholic hospital
Services
Emergency department	Level II trauma center
Beds	628
History
Founded	1856
Links
Website	www.shmc.org
Lists	Hospitals in Washington

Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children’s Hospital is a 628-bed medical facility in Spokane, Washington. It employs more than 4,000 health care professionals and support staff. Its medical staff consists of over 800 specialists and primary care doctors.

Heeding the call of Fr. Joseph Cataldo, a Jesuit father, Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart and Sister Joseph of Arimathea, two Sisters of Providence, traveled from Vancouver, Washington at the end of April 1886 to survey sites where they could establish a hospital in Spokane. On May 14, 1886, the Corporation of the Sisters of Providence agreed to build and within days ground was broken and construction under way at a site on the south bank of the Spokane River at Front Street between Browne and Bernard in what was then known as Spokane Falls. When the cornerstone was being blessed on July 2, 1886 (the feast of the Sacred Heart), the bishop of Nisqually, Aegidius Junger, asked for the name of the hospital. As no name had been received from the General Administration in Montreal at that point, the sisters had no name to give. The hospital received its name when a priest piped in: “It will be Sacred Heart Hospital.”

The hospital formally opened on January 27, 1887, but the sisters received their first patient, a blacksmith by the name of John Cox, on January 15. Three days after his admittance, Mr. Cox also became the hospital’s first death. As Spokane’s population grew, so too did the number of sick, injured, and poor: the sisters’ works were quickly outgrowing the original building so a new wing was added in 1889.

Sacred Heart was the region's first hospital, a 31-bed, wood-framed structure built along the Spokane River where the Spokane Convention Center now stands.

Sacred Heart quickly outgrew its first location and in 1910, it was moved (as well as expanded) to its current location on Spokane's South Hill.

The present Sacred Heart Medical Center's nine-story patient tower was built in 1971. By 1984 the new East addition housed psychiatric, outpatient, radiology and pediatric surgery services. More recent campus developments include the Spokane Heart Institute (1991), the expansion of the Sacred Heart Doctor's Building (1993), and Emilie Court, an assisted living facility (2000).

Responding to requests from the medical community, and supported by the community leaders and families, Sacred Heart Children's Hospital, the region's first full-service Children's Hospital opened in 2003. The fall of 2004 saw the opening of the Women's Health Center and Surgery Center, West Tower addition. On November 28, 2006, Sacred Heart completed its 200th heart transplant.