St. Vincent's Medical Center Southside
| St. Vincent's Medical Center Southside | |
|---|---|
| St. Vincent's Health Services | |
 |
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| Geography | |
| Location | Jacksonville, Florida, United States |
| Coordinates | 29°51′47″N 81°19′03″W / 29.863144°N 81.317604°W |
| Organization | |
| Care system | Medicare/Medicaid/Public |
| Hospital type | General medical and surgical |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | yes |
| Beds | 175 |
| History | |
| Founded | 1873 |
| Links | |
| Website | jaxhealth.com |
| Lists | Hospitals in Florida |
St. Vincent's Medical Center Southside is a not-for-profit, faith-based hospital located in the southern part of Jacksonville, Florida. It is a member of St. Vincent's HealthCare and is affiliated with Ascension Health. Founded as St. Luke's Hospital in 1873, it was Jacksonville's first private hospital and is Florida's oldest private hospital.
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.
The subsequent 1878 building was also located in the downtown core, but survived the Great Fire of 1901, which consumed nearly every structure in the city. That building was outgrown and a new facility was acquired in the Springfield area, where the hospital was located from 1914-1984.
The 1878 Old St. Luke's Hospital, is being purchased by the Jacksonville Historical Society to become a museum housing the society's one million plus documents and photographs.
The current facility was opened in December 1984, contained 289 beds, and offered general acute care services and specialized medical/surgical procedures. It was located in the fast-growing southeast quadrant of Jacksonville, along J. Turner Butler Boulevard, a major thoroughfare to and from the beaches.
Mayo Clinic opened an outpatient facility in Jacksonville in 1985, then bought St. Luke’s in 1987 to serve as a tertiary referral hospital 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.
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