St. Mary's General Hospital history

Eight Sisters were chosen to make the journey, headed by 25-year-old Sister Mary Baptist Russell (nee Katherine Russell), who had joined the order at the age of 19 and nursed victims through Ireland's horrible cholera epidemic of 1849—an experience that later would prove valuable in San Francisco.

Founded in 1858 by Father Caspar Rehrl, the CSA began its health care ministry in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, under the leadership of Mother Mary Agnes, first canonical superior of the community.

In 1870, seven Sisters of St Joseph traveled from San Diego to Tucson to open a school.

It was not until 1874 that they would receive their formal name: the Sisters of St Mary (SSM), named for St Mary of Victories Church, with whom their convent shared a common door.

The Southern Pacific Railroad arrives in Tucson a month before the dedication of the 12-bed St Mary's Hospital on April 24, 1880.

In 1882, Bishop Salpointe sells St Mary's to the Sisters for $20,000 and the promise that it retain its name and remain a hospital for 99 years.

Construction of another addition is begun on the north side of the faculty.By 1884, the hospital accommodates 50 patients.

Michael Spencer, Hiram Fenner, Henri Matas and Pierre Guiot.In 1891, George Goodfellow, M.D., a pioneer in treating gunshot wounds and abdominal surgery, moves from Tombstone to Tucson.

By 1898 the Medical Staff is organized with Doctor Alonzo Garcelon as its first president, the Society Dames Patronesses (Auxiliary) was formed along with the Men's Hospital Association (Patrons).

The City of Lewiston responded to a small pox epidemic in 1899 by establishing a "Pest House" in which patients were quarantined.

In 1900, to care for the growing numbers of tubercular patients, Doctor Hiram W. Fenner designs and oversees the construction of a two-story circular sanatorium at St Mary's Hospital.

The need for a larger hospital became clear and in 1902 a separate hospital was built providing 150 beds and 25 bassinets.

Also in 1908, St Mary's School of Nursing was established.

On August 12, 1912, the Sisters left Stella Niagara for Richwood, West Virginia, where they opened a school and, the next year, a hospital.

The first month's bill is $19.40.St Mary's opens the Nursing School in 1914 with classrooms, dorms and a two-and-a-half-year-long curriculum.

Sisters Francis de Sales Fuller and Mary Evangelista Weyand prepare the curriculum and organize the teaching faculty.St Mary's medical staff is officially organized on February 16, 1917.

The Sisters offer the hospital as a place to care for wounded soldiers.In 1918, Tucsonans find themselves caught in the grip of a global influenza epidemic.

In 1921, they opened a second West Virginia hospital, in Buckhannon.

St Mary 's Hospital was founded by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in 1923 to expand the call of Bishop Dubuis to minister to "Our Lord Jesus Christ suffering in the persons of a multitude of sick and infirm of every kind who seek relief at your hands."

On November 6, 1924, the Sisters were ready to open their 35-bed hospital and place it under the protection of Mary, the Mother of God.

The convent is dedicated January 30, 1927.The chapel is named St Catherine's to honor the mother of Thomas E. Murray, Jr., a benefactor of the Sisters.

A new convent and chapel is designed by Merritt H. Starkweather and built by A. C. Jacobson. It is dedicated December 7, 1928.In 1928, St Mary's is accredited by the American College of Surgeons, the first national group to set hospital standards.

Precious hospital income is lost in 1930 when the Southern Pacific Railroad opens its own facility on Congress Street and closes its St Mary's clinic.

In 1931, Chester Reynolds, M.D., is St Mary's first intern.

In 1933, the hospital's Crippled Children's Clinic opened.

During 1935, 3,036 patients are admitted, 1,688 operations are performed and 169 babies are born.

In October 1936, Sisters at the hospital may wear white habits and veils instead of full-length, heavy black serge habits and starched coverall aprons.

Soon, the shortage of beds again was acute, and despite the twin ravages of the Great Depression and the 1937 flood that inundated much of Huntington, St Mary's raised $200,000 in contributions from the community to finance the construction of a new wing.

The wing was dedicated on November 9, 1938.

In 1940, Clark & Company Heating and Cooling installed the first cabinet air conditioners in the hospital's surgical suites and nursery.

Plunged into war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the nation found itself in urgent need of trained nurses, and so St Mary's expanded enrollment at its School of Nursing.

The operating rooms begin a blood transfusion program.By 1942, with the United States entering World War II, more than half of St Mary's doctors and nurses enlist for military duty.

On November 6, 1949, St Mary's marked its 25th anniversary with an open house and a Pontifical High Mass of Thanksgiving.

St Mary's nine-story Central Services Building opens in 1951, bringing the hospital bed total to 375.

In 1956, St Mary's Hospital is annexed into the City of Tucson.

The 1958 project also included construction of a new convent.

In 1959, St Mary's acquires a heart-lung machine and surgeons perform Arizona's first open heart surgery on an 8-year-old girl.

Sponsored by the Eliot Spalding Foundation, the hospital's Cardiovascular Center opens in 1960, the same year Tucson's first pacemaker is implanted in a female patient at St Mary's.

The Sisters dedicate the 124-bed St Joseph's Hospital May 1, 1961 on Tucson's east side.

In 1962, the hospital opens the Critical Care Unit and trains its first cardiac arrest team who respond to the summons of "Emergency, Doctor Stillheart!"

St Mary's School of Nursing's last class graduates in May 1966, joining the ranks of nearly 900 alumnae.

The Centurions, a fundraising group of business and civic leaders, is organized in December 1968 to support St Mary's.

With the support of the Tucson firefighters, St Mary's opens a three-bed patient unit in 1969 as southern Arizona's first facility dedicated to burn care.

St Mary's Rehabilitation Services are formally organized in 1971 by Stuart Holtzman, M.D., who will serve as medical director for nearly 20 years.In 1971, St Mary's community mental health facility opens.

And on November 24, 1974, St Mary's celebrated its 50th anniversary by dedicating its new addition.

Fourteen students graduate in the first class.In the spring of 1977, the old nursing school and St Mary's South Annex are torn down.

A new convent is opened near Tumamoc Hill.On October 1, 1978, St Mary's Obstetrics unit closes due to the declining birth rate.

Open heart surgery became a reality in the Tri-State on September 24, 1979, when the first open heart operation was performed in St Mary's new $2.35 million heart unit.

In December 1980, St Mary's is one of the first hospitals in the United States to open a hospice unit.

In 1981, the Sisters are asked by the Diocese of Tucson to run what, at the time, was called St Joseph's Hospital in Nogales, Arizona, on behalf of the Minim Sisters.

In 1983, St Mary's and St Joseph's hospitals in Tucson merge, sharing their management services and supplies.

St Mary's develops its Nurse Case Management Program and Home Health Services in 1984.

Prior to 1985, most of the health ministries that would become part of SSM Health were sponsored by the congregations that would become the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, but were not operated as an integrated health care system.

That changed in 1986 with the creation of SSM Health as a system of hospitals, nursing homes and health related businesses.

In 1987, the Sisters purchase the Nogales hospital and name it Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital.

Today nearly 20 are located throughout Pima and Santa Cruz counties.In 1992, Casita Maria, an intergenerational child care center, opens for children of St Mary's staff.

In 1994, The Healthy Seniors Program, a $5 million nationally funded Medicare research project, is launched through Carondelet's Community Nursing Organization for residents in Pima and Santa Cruz counties.

In December 1995, cancer care in the Tri-State took a major step forward with the announcement that St Mary's was affiliating with the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the national leaders in the field.

By July 1997, the outpatient facility was completed and opened its doors providing the community with outpatient surgical and diagnostic services as well as additional physician offices.

On August 1, 1999, St Mary's dedicated its new Radiation Oncology Center, part of a $5 million renovation to the radiation therapy department.

The Joslin Diabetes Center of Boston, an international leader in diagnosing and treating diabetes, opened a center at St Mary's in January 2000.

In August 2002, St Mary's Board of Directors and the Pallottine Missionary Sisters agreed that the hospital would be renamed St Mary's Medical Center.

William P. Thompson succeeded Sister Mary Jean and became the system’s first lay president/CEO in 2011.

In November 2013, sponsorship of SSM Health was transferred from the Franciscan Sisters of Mary to SSM Health Ministries, a newly-formed ministerial public juridic person that now serves as the Corporate Member for the health system.

In November 2014, SSM Health began centralizing many of its core functions (human resources, finance, strategy and planning, marketing and communications, and other services) and unifying all of its hospitals and health care services under the SSM Health name.

In May 2017, Laura Kaiser was named president/CEO. Under her leadership, the organization has continued to grow and expand.