St. Paul's Hospital (Vancouver)

St. Paul's Hospital
Providence Health Care
Location in Vancouver
Geography
Location	1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Coordinates	49°16′50″N 123°07′40″W / 49.280431°N 123.127887°W / 49.280431; -123.127887Coordinates: 49°16′50″N 123°07′40″W / 49.280431°N 123.127887°W / 49.280431; -123.127887
Organization
Care system	Medicare (Canada)
Hospital type	Teaching, Academic
Affiliated university	UBC Faculty of Medicine
Services
Emergency department	Yes
History
Founded	1894
Links
Website	providencehealthcare

St. Paul's Hospital is an acute care hospital located in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is the oldest of the seven health care facilities operated by Providence Health Care, a Roman Catholic faith-based care provider. St. Paul's is open to patients regardless of their faith and is home to many medical and surgical programs, including cardiac services and kidney care including an advanced structural heart disease program. It is also the home of the Pacific Adult Congenital Heart Disease unit..

The original St. Paul’s Hospital was founded in 1894 just eight years after the incorporation of the City of Vancouver by the Sisters Of Providence who (from their base in Montreal) founded schools, hospitals and asylums all over North America and other continents.

The 25-bed, 4-storey wood frame building cost $28,000. It was designed and constructed by Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart and named after the then-bishop, Paul Durieu of New Westminster.

Mother Mary Fredrick from Astoria, Oregon was the first mother superior and administrator to lead its charge. In keeping with the philosophy of the Sisters of Providence, the new hospital was founded on the pledge of providing compassionate care for everyone in need - tested by a surge in Vancouver’s growth brought on by the Klondike gold rush in the 1890s.

St Paul’s became one of the first hospitals with their own X-Ray machine in 1906 and opened its School of Nursing in 1907.

In 1912, the original building was demolished and replaced with a new structure to accommodate 200 patients at a construction cost of $400,000.

In 2010, the hospital established Angel's Cradle, the first modern Baby hatch in Canada where mothers could anonymously provide their newborns to the hospital rather than abandon them elsewhere. Thirty seconds after a baby has been placed inside the modern version of a 'foundling wheel', a sensor alerts emergency staff. A social worker contacts the Ministry of Children and Family Development which then assumes responsibility for the baby. In its first five years, two healthy babies had been placed in the baby hatch.