Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children's Hospital

Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children's Hospital
Providence Health Care
Sacred Heart Medical Center in 2017
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Geography
Location	101 West Eighth Avenue, Spokane, Washington, United States
Coordinates	47°38′56″N 117°24′47″W / 47.649°N 117.413°W / 47.649; -117.413Coordinates: 47°38′56″N 117°24′47″W / 47.649°N 117.413°W / 47.649; -117.413
Organization
Care system	Public, Medicaid, Medicare[1]
Funding	Non-profit hospital
Type	General
Religious affiliation	Catholic
Affiliated university	Washington State University[2]
Services
Standards	Joint Commission
Emergency department	II[1]
Beds	632[1]
Helipad	Yes
History
Opened	1886; 135 years ago (1886)
Links
Website	www.shmc.org
Lists	Hospitals in Washington

Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children's Hospital (more commonly known as Sacred Heart Medical Center or simply Sacred Heart) is a 632-bed general hospital 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.

Services Include: main medical center/ER, children's hospital, women's health center, specialized centers for robotic and minimally invasive surgery, cardiology, orthopedic surgery, stroke center, neuroscience and cancer. Sacred Heart is rated as a "high performing" hospital in ten adult procedures and conditions according to U.S. News & World Report.^[3]

History[]

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."^[4]

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.^[5] 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. It 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 children’s hospital opened in 2003

The present Sacred Heart Medical Center's nine-story patient tower was built in 1971.^[6] 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. A special pathogens unit was constructed in 2015 in the east addition with federal funding to host people with highly infectious diseases.^[7]

Services[]

The hospital is equipped with the staff and resources to operate a level II adult and pediatric trauma center, the only such center in the Inland Northwest.^[8] Sacred Heart also has a Level IV regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.^[9][10] The Providence Spokane Heart Institute retains specialized physicians with expertise that encompass all aspects of cardiovascular care and work to enhance and pioneer new diagnostic testing, medications, interventions and surgical techniques and hence are referred difficult cases from elsewhere in the region.^[8]

Sacred Heart is the designated special pathogens unit for the Pacific Northwest and is one of ten such units in the country with federal certifications to treat highly infectious diseases.^[11] The facilities were used to treat people during the West African Ebola virus epidemic and four passengers from the stranded-in-port Diamond Princess cruise ship in 2020 during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[12]

Sacred Heart performs heart, lung, kidney and pancreas organ transplants.^[13]

Affiliations[]

Sacred Heart has a long relationship with the Washington State University College of Pharmacy on the WSU Spokane campus and since the inception of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, the hospital has hosted a residency program that offers a teaching certificate.^[14] As of June 2020, the hospital had 72 interns and residents.^[1]

See also[]

• Deaconess Hospital

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Crompton, Kim (2006-12-07). "Finding STRENGTH in numbers". Journal of Business. Archived from the original on 2007-01-01. Retrieved 2006-12-09.
• "Sacred Heart Medical Center - History". Retrieved 2006-12-09.