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The hospitals of Catholic Healthcare West have a long and rich history of service. Many of our hospitals have been serving their communities for over 100 years. What follows is a chronological account of our hospitals' early days. Simply click "next" to advance to the next founding story.

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St. Mary's Medical Center, San Francisco, California
On December 8, 1854, eight Sisters of Mercy stepped off the Pacific steamer Cortes onto San Francisco's Jackson Street wharf.  There was no one on the dock to meet them.  No house had been prepared for them. Yet, within months of their arrival these young women, many of them still in their twenties, were providing twenty-four hour nursing care to a city devastated by cholera, then typhoid, smallpox, and influenza. Three years later, using their own funds, the Sisters officially opened St. Mary's Medical Center, marking the establishment of the first Catholic hospital on the Pacific Coast of the United States. 

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Mercy Medical Center Merced Community Campus, Merced, California
Originally named Merced Community Medical Center, the Community Campus of Mercy Medical Center Merced evolved from a small, one-story wooden building erected in 1873.  Its mission was to care for the county's poor and indigent populations, and health care services were provided out of that building for the next fifty years. The need to expand resulted in the construction of a new facility in 1904 for an astonishing $29,000. Today, the facility continues to serve the poor and indigent in Merced, operating three clinics to support those efforts.

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California Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles, California
The hospital began as a small, physician-owned and operated facility in 1887 housing only eight beds and a small medical staff.  Originally named Dr. Lindley's Private Hospital, many physicians considered the staff at the facility to be in the "in-group" because their clientele were "carriage trade" and because of their affiliation with University of Southern California's Medical School.  By 1902, California Hospital Medical Center evolved into the largest and best-equipped physician-owned hospital west of Chicago. Less than 25 years later, hospital's old frame buildings were replaced by a more modern nine-story brick building, making it first fireproof hospital in Los Angeles.

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St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, Arizona
Founded in 1895 by the Sister's of Mercy, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center was originally a six-room cottage dedicated to treating tuberculosis patients.  Patients paid $10 per week for hospital care. At the time of its founding, air conditioning was unheard of and electric fans were a luxury. To stay cool, some surgeons wore two pairs of boots when they operated. The outer pair was substantially larger, and they'd fill the gap between the two pairs with ice to stay cool. St. Joseph's Nursing School students the early 50s slept on the hospital's porch, rain or shine.

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Mercy General Hospital, Sacramento, California
On Thanksgiving Day in 1896 the cornerstone for Mater Misericordiae Hospital was laid in Sacramento.  The facility opened in 1897 with 155 beds and 35 bassinets.  Many years later, when construction began for a new facility, another Thanksgiving Day celebration was held for the cornerstone of Mercy General Hospital.  The new hospital was unique (at least at the time) because it is in the shape of an X so that each room would be "bathed in the sunlight at some time during the day." 

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St. Joseph's Medical Center, Stockton, California
The cornerstone for what is now known as St. Joseph's Medical Center was dedicated on St. Joseph's Day, March 19, 1899.  Originally designed as a home for aging men, St. Joseph's Home and Hospital opened its doors on December 21, 1899 with 25 hospital beds and room for resident "homers."  To be admitted, men had to be "60 years of age or over, of good moral character, free from any contagious disease, and of temperate habits."  Staff at the original facility included the hospital's administrator, Father William Bernard O'Connor, an Irish priest who was sent to Stockton as pastor of St. Mary's Church, three Sisters of St. Dominic, one resident physician, and one head nurse.  Upon his death in 1911, Fr. O'Connor transferred ownership and operation of the hospital to the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael in gratitude for their 12 years of service without salary or compensation.

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Saint Francis Memorial Hospital, San Francisco, California
In 1905, five prominent physicians on staff at the Southern Pacific Railway Hospital decided a new medical facility for their private patients was needed.  This founding group of doctors intended to give the people of San Francisco the most-up-to-date, modern hospital west of Chicago. The 80-bed hospital opened its doors in August 1905.  A few months later, on April 18 at 5:15 AM, the great San Francisco earthquake devastated the city, and the two-day fire that raged through the city burned the hospital building to the ground.  Patients and staff at Saint Francis were safely evacuated to San Mateo and to the home of Dr. Redmond Payne. Dr. Payne's home became the temporary location of the hospital until more permanent facilities could be found.  By 1911, a new 100-bed hospital was built at the corner of Bush and Hyde Streets, the hospital's current location.

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St. Elizabeth Community Hospital, Red Bluff, California
St. Elizabeth accepted its first patient in 1906. The ten-bed hospital was founded in cooperation with the Sisters of Mercy and the financial support of Elizabeth Kraft, the widow of a prominent businessman. Mrs. Kraft donated funds as well as the building and land. In return, the hospital was named St. Elizabeth.  Fire destroyed the original building in 1913, but the Sisters and the Red Bluff community came together and raised the $25,000 needed to rebuild the facility on the same site.

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Mercy Medical Center Redding, Redding, California
The origins of Mercy Medical Center Redding date back to the early twentieth century, when the city's first hospital, then known as St. Caroline Hospital, opened on September 21, 1907.  Dr. Ferdinand Stabel, founder and builder of the private hospital, named it after his mother, Caroline, who had raised 13 children.  Dr. Stabel died on December 8, 1943 and the Shasta County Medical Society, together with interested citizens, began to assist the Sisters of Mercy in their endeavor to take over operations of the facility. The Sisters bought approximately $30,000 worth of stock to obtain ownership of the hospital in 1944 and renamed the facility Mercy Hospital.

Woodland Healthcare, Woodland, California
Before 1907, the rural Woodland area's medical needs were served by traveling physicians, who treated patients in their homes. Oftentimes, surgeries were performed on a kitchen table with makeshift surgical instruments and babies were delivered in bedrooms. Area doctors made their rounds on horse and buggy, through dirt roads that often were impassable in bad weather. But in 1907, a pioneering registered nurse and her two sisters rented a two-story home to serve the medical needs of the community. The Woodland Sanitarium had only nine beds with the second floor of the home converted into a surgical suite. Small as the original Sanitarium was, it was the "seed" from which Woodland Memorial Hospital grew.

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Community Hospital of San Bernardino, San Bernardino, California
Originally owned and operated by a group of private physicians, this 42-bed hospital facility, known then as Ramona Hospital, officially opened its doors in 1908.  The facility cost more than $10,000 to build and the for-profit hospital did well during the prosperity of the early 1920's.  With the stock market crash of 1929, however, the hospital fell onto hard times and struggled to stay afloat.  It was the efforts of 18 dedicated community members who formed the Ramona Hospital Association that gave the hospital the financial stability to weather the storm.  In 1958, the hospital moved to its current site.  On moving day, a pediatrician placed newborns into the hands of nurses and drove them all to the new hospital-making several trips in his Cadillac.

Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center, Reno, Nevada
Saint Mary's began its legacy of caring for the community in 1877, when a few Dominican Sisters made an unplanned stop in Reno on their journey from California to Kentucky. The Sisters stayed in Reno and built Mount Saint Mary's Academy, to bring education to the children of farmers and miners in the area. The academy would eventually become Sisters' Hospital as the rapidly growing community was in dire need of quality, caring health care. As the area continued to grow, so did health care demands, so in 1912 a new adjoining facility opened and Sisters' Hospital became Saint Mary's Hospital. Today Saint Mary's consists of more than 10 health care facilities, a highly recognized health plans division and a thriving philanthropic foundation -- all working together to deliver the highest quality care to a region encompassing northern Nevada and northeastern California.

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Mercy Hospital, Bakersfield, California
In February of 1910, four Sisters of Mercy arrived in Bakersfield to operate the hospital known then as St. Clair Hospital.  Originally a doctor's home, St. Clair Hospital had only 12 beds, but eventually expanded to a 25-bed facility. In 1913, a new site on Truxtun Avenue was purchased. The St. Clair house literally was picked up, put on a platform and hauled over the railroad tracks to its new location. To raise funds for the new facility, the Sisters hosted a dinner at one of the nicest hotels, which newspaper accounts called "the pride of the community." At the three-story hospital's dedication in 1913, guests were treated to a ride on the city's first electric elevator. Nearly 90 years later, Mercy Hospital remains at the same location today. 

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St. John's Regional Medical Center, Oxnard, California
In 1911, community leaders approached Reverend John Laubacher out of concern that health care services were not available to meet the needs of the thousands of residents who had settled on the Oxnard plains. Encouraged by Reverend Laubacher, the Sisters of Mercy established St. John's Regional Medical Center in 1912. The hospital grew from a six-room wooden structure on ten acres of land to a 230-bed regional medical center on a 48-acre parcel in Northeast Oxnard.

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Mercy Medical Center Merced Dominican Campus, Merced, California
In September 1921, a group of city leaders came together to construct a community hospital. The board purchased property in February of 1922 and opened the 20-bed facility in 1923. By 1937, the hospital had doubled its size, to 50 beds, and the grounds had been lowered to give a "sunken gardens" appearance. The hospital was incorporated on December 8, 1948, and in 1949 the Dominican Sisters of Kenosha, Wisconsin began to manage Mercy.

St. Mary Medical Center, Long Beach, California
Originally named Long Beach Sanitarium, the hospital was sold in 1923 to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, at the urging of Rev. J. M. Hegarty, pastor of St. Anthony's Church. In August of that same year, six Sisters arrived in Long Beach from Texas to take over the management of the sanitarium, which was renamed St. Mary's Hospital. In late 1929 the Sisters planned a fund-raising campaign to build a larger facility, but the process was delayed by the Depression and a series of earthquakes that destroyed the original hospital. In 1937, a 100-bed facility was completed on the site of the original hospital. This structure, quakeproof and fireproof throughout, is the present south wing of St. Mary Medical Center.

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Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, Glendale, California
It was a serious shortage of hospital beds in the Glendale area that prompted several doctors and community members to purchase a sizeable parcel of land and build a new hospital.  Their hard work and dedication paid off on January 13, 1926 when Physicians and Surgeons Hospital opened its three story, 47 bed hospital to the public. The facility has provided uninterrupted service ever since, even through the very trying times of the Great Depression. It was Glendale's indoor swimming pool that ultimately kept the facility solvent by treating patients who had fallen victim to the polio epidemic.

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St. Bernardine Medical Center, San Bernardino, California
A group of local businessmen joined a pioneering physician, Dr. Phillip M. Savage, in 1929 to develop a formal trust agreement for a new hospital in San Bernardino.  Together, they were able to raise $100,000 in cash, a laudable accomplishment in the aftermath of the disastrous stock-market crash that year. The motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity contributed the remainder needed, $550,000, to purchase the 17-acres of land and begin construction.  The 125-bed hospital opened in October 1931 and admitted as its first patient a woman in labor. She delivered a daughter, who she named Bernardine, and had her baptized in the hospital's chapel. The Depression years were hard on the hospital and many patients paid their bills with walnuts, poultry or citrus rather than dollars and cents. Often, the Sisters had to barter for the cash to buy medicines and dressings.

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Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta, Mt. Shasta, California
With only seventeen beds and a limited staff, the first administrator at Mercy Medical Center, Mt. Shasta served not only as an accomplished surgeon, but also as the hospital's electrician, plumber and carpenter.  When the hospital opened in 1938, Dr. William E. Smith would arrive early in the morning to perform his scheduled surgeries and then put on his tool belt and make necessary repairs to the facility or remodel a room.  Since the hospital did not staff a pharmacist, Dr. Smith also ordered all the medication.  And it was a team effort!  In these early days of the hospital, the staff would arrive early in the morning to perform their medical duties in the lab or x-ray rooms, and then head up to the roof to shovel off the snow.

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Marian Medical Center, Santa Maria, California
Founded in 1940 by the Sisters of Saint Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, Marian Medical Center, then known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help Hospital, was originally a 35-bed general acute-care hospital staffed by eight sisters and other health care professionals. The cost of building this first hospital was estimated at $130,000 excluding the cost of equipment and furnishings. During the early years of the hospital, most of the community members were tied in economically to the land, so many patients paid for their care with vegetables and gifts of meat.  Today, the hospital is a 167-bed medical facility with two campuses, Marian Medical Center and Marian Medical Center West.

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Dominican Hospital, Santa Cruz, California
Responding to a request by the Monterey Bay diocese of the Catholic Church, the Adrian Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, took over the abandoned 18-bed Hanley Hospital in 1941. It soon became known as Sister's Hospital. During the early days of the newly re-opened hospital, only double doors separated the convent from the hospital ward. One night, a patient who tended to wander at night climbed into the bed of Sister Georganne Duggan, the hospital administrator. Startled, she climbed out of bed on the other side and called the ward nurse about the patient. The nurse said, "Oh yes, he's sleeping peacefully," to which Sister Georganne replied, "Yes he is, and in my bed!"

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French Hospital Medical Center, San Luis Obispo, California
French Hospital Medical Center was founded in 1946 by the hospital's namesake, Dr. Edison French. After wartime service in the Navy Medical Corps, Dr. French had settled in San Luis Obispo, purchased the San Luis Sanitarium on Marsh Street, renamed it the French Hospital, and begun to practice state-of-the art medicine. He claimed to be the first surgeon in San Luis Obispo to use intravenous anesthesia, the first to perform a lung resection, and the first to do collapsed lung therapy. He was also the first specialist to actively encourage other specialists to settle in the area. Some of the physicians he recruited helped create places for patients with special needs, including the founding of a halfway house for alcoholics, and a program for disabled children.

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St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, Henderson, Nevada
A pioneering group of seven Adrian Dominican Sisters arrived in Las Vegas by train at 1:30 am on June 27, 1947. The Sisters came to take over Basic Hospital, which was previously run by the government.  The Adrian's purchased the hospital from the government for $1. Rose de Lima was the first hospital in Southern Nevada, and one of the first in the western states to install a radioisotope laboratory. An "Atomic Cocktail Party" was held to raise funds for the lab, and invitations to the event encouraged would-be donors to "come and glow" at the buffet dinner and dance.  Since that time, the hospital has expanded and improved services to meet the growing needs of the community and in 2000 became a multi-campus facility with the opening of the hospital's Siena Campus.

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Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City, California
The idea for a hospital in Redwood City originated in 1938, when a group of nine women led by Mrs. Henry Beeger made an appeal to the City Council of Redwood City for a community hospital to serve the residents of southern San Mateo County. A preliminary study authorized by the City Council confirmed the need, citing a "woeful lack of hospital facilities in the area." Rather than relying on private donations, large corporations or federal funds, it was the voters of Redwood City, Belmont, San Carlos, Menlo Park and Portola Valley who elected to form a "hospital district" under newly enacted state laws. The voters also passed a pair of bond issues that financed the project at a cost of $2.1 million. Thus began the development of Redwood City's Sequoia Hospital - the first district hospital in California and the prototype from which 65 others would follow. Sequoia Hospital was officially dedicated on Ocotber 15, 1950.

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Mark Twain St. Joseph's Hospital, San Andreas, California
The Mark Twain Hospital District was formed by the voters at a special election on August 27, 1946 and the first Board of Directors was appointed by the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors on October 7, 1946.  A bond issue in the amount of $350,000 was submitted to the voters of the District by the directors on June 1, 1948. The vote in favor of the bond issue was 3116 "yes", 449 "no". The State of California and the Federal Government approved financial participation in the total cost of the hospital, slightly in excess of one-half of the estimated cost of $600,000.. On September 9, 1951 the first patient was admitted.

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Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Northridge, California
Thirty-seven physicians invested their own money to purchase five acres of land and build a 49-bed hospital in Northridge. The hospital opened on September 18, 1955 with 102% occupancy and was the only hospital in the area "cooled by refrigerated air." One year after it opened, the facility converted to a not-for-profit hospital and always kept two beds available for charity cases. On January 17, 1994, the hospital was at the epicenter of a 6.6 magnitude earthquake. In the four days that followed the quake, more than 1,700 patients were treated at the hospital and a makeshift triage was set up in the parking lot. The quake plunged the neo-natal ICU into darkness as glass and equipment crashed all around the newborns. Miraculously, all 21 babies survived.

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Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, Bakersfield, California
This hospital began through a citizen campaign formed by civic leaders and healthcare professionals in the early 1950s. The drive led to the opening of the original 112-bed Greater Bakersfield Memorial Hospital in 1956 at its current location.

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Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, Grass Valley, California
A local judge and two major gold mine operators established a non-profit corporation in 1934 to build a 125-bed community hospital that would serve Grass Valley and neighboring Nevada City. Construction for the facility started in 1939, but with the launch of American involvement in World War II only two years later, construction halted.  In a wartime economy, many of the gold mines that once thrived in the area closed. After the war, there was little profit in gold mining and the building shell was never completed. It was finally sold in 1953, and proceeds of the sale plus results of a local fund drive made it possible to erect a new building on the hospital's present site, which opened on December 28, 1958.

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San Gabriel Valley Medical Center, San Gabriel, California
In August of 1960, Community Hospital of San Gabriel opened its doors as a for-profit community hospital with 146 beds. At that time, the hospital's unique architecture provided its well baby nursery with a large viewing window facing the street. The public was invited to view newborns from an outdoor walkway in front of the nursery's large window.  Four years after it's opening, the hospital restructured as a non-profit facility in order to better serve the San Gabriel community. The hospital celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1985 by changing the name to San Gabriel Valley Medical Center and opening a new emergency department.

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Chandler Regional Hospital, Chandler, Arizona
Five patients were admitted to Chandler Regional Hospital on its first day of operation in 1961. The Chandler community starting its fundraising efforts for the hospital in 1958 through many ingenious initiatives - they performed the play Little Red Riding Hood and sold items like the "High and Handy" trashcan. But it was bond funds that finally provided enough money to build the hospital, which had only forty-two beds, one operating room, a delivery room and a single emergency room bed. One of the hospital's first patients, an expectant mother, gave birth on the hospital's second day of operation - increasing the daily census by 20%!

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Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, Arroyo Grande, California
Founded by four local physicians, Arroyo Grande Community Hospital opened in 1962 as a 30-bed facility.

Mercy Hospital of Folsom, Folsom, California
In September of 1960, Jack Kipp's five-year old daughter was seriously injured while playing in a neighbor's yard. A friend in the police department to drove them from Folsom down to North Sacramento to the closest hospital. After a long day's ordeal, Jack and his wife sat down together and vowed to bring hospital care closer to home. Twin Lakes Hospital was opened on Feb. 19, 1962. Jack, who has served the Folsom community in many leadership roles, including mayor, was the first administrator of the new hospital. The hospital changed hands twice and was on the brink of closure when the Sisters of Mercy were asked to help. They acquired the 30-bed facility in 1980 to ensure the healthcare safety net would endure in the region. During the 1980s, the population of Folsom began booming as large employers, including Intel, moved to town. In 1989, the Sisters opened a new 95-bed hospital on Creekside Drive in Folsom, located on a 26-acre parcel of property donated by the Cummings and Tsakopoulos families.

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Mercy San Juan Medical Center, Carmichael, California
The hospital was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1967. Howard Carpenter, who has been with Mercy San Juan since it opened, remembers having his job interview under a pine tree in 1966 as the structure was being completed. Howard started as a staff engineer, worked his way up to manager. When he retired a couple of years ago, he decided to come back as a part-time clerical worker in, you guessed it, the Engineering department. Donna Heiman, RN, Supervisor for Trauma Med/Surg, also with MSJMC since the beginning, remembers how difficult it was sustain a patient census at the outset. "The hospital was built 'out in the sticks' and no physician wanted to drive all the way to Carmichael to see their patient. So when our census reached a milestone of 10 or 15 or 20, the employees got free coffee for the day."

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Methodist Hospital of Sacramento, Sacramento, California
Retired California Supreme Court Judge and son of a Methodist minister, Frank K. Richardson officially opened Methodist Hospital on October 23, 1973. The road to the facility's grand opening was a long one. In the summer of 1966, the hospital received a federal grant called the Hill-Burton Act, which provided grants and loan guarantees for the construction of new healthcare facilities. The grant was for the amount of $1,750,000, but in order to get this money another $800,000 needed to be raised within 120 days. Unfortunately, the original founders were not able to meet that deadline and they lost the grant money. It was finally a bond measure and private financing that led to the realization of Methodist Hospital in Sacramento.

Oak Valley District Hospital, Oakdale, California
The Oak Valley Hospital District was formed on June 18, 1968 by a community general election. The community sought a long-term way to ensure health services would be delivered locally. At that time, the only hospital in the Oakdale area was the 32-bed Oakdale Municipal Hospital, owned by the City of Oakdale. On November 3, 1970, the hospital district's voters authorized a $1.75 million general bond for the construction of a new hospital. The new facility was completed in 1973 with a total of 33 beds and four private rooms.

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St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital, Camarillo, California
The hospital was founded in 1974 by a group of community leaders who believed that a hospital was needed in their community. In 1993, Pleasant Valley Hospital merged with SJRMC. In addition to its 82 acute-care beds, SJPVH has a 99-bed extended care unit and the only hyperbaric medicine unit in Ventura County.

St. Joseph's Behavioral Health Center, Stockton, California
St. Joseph's Behavioral Health Center has been proudly serving the community for 25 years. In 1974, behavioral health services opened as a small department of St. Joseph's Medical Center in Stockton. The 1980's brought awareness and growth of Chemical Dependency in terms of funding and programs resulting in increased space needs for Behavioral Health. In 1988, the unit was moved to its current location at 2510 North California Street, Stockton, in what was the former Oak Park Hospital.

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Mercy Southwest Hospital, Bakersfield, California
Located on a 40-acre site, Mercy Southwest Hospital was the first acute care hospital built in Bakersfield in nearly 40 years, officially opening its doors in 1992. The first patient at Mercy Southwest Hospital, a pregnant mother, arrived a little early - the hospital hadn't officially opened yet. At 3:50 a.m., three hours before the hospital was scheduled to admit its first patients, a woman arrived ready to deliver her fourth child. Four employees assisted in the birth, as the mother's water broke upon entering the lobby.  Within three minutes a baby girl was delivered on the lobby floor. The baby was wrapped in sterile blankets, employees called 911, and both mother and baby were transported to Bakersfield Memorial Hospital.

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Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, Gilbert, Arizona
Opened on June 5, 2006, Mercy Gilbert Medical Center is Gilbert's first full-service hospital. With 88 private inpatient rooms and four special care nursery beds, the four-story, 350,000 square-foot facility has the capacity to grow to 400 beds as the needs of the Gilbert community continue to grow.

St. Rose Dominican Hospitals San Martín Campus, Las Vegas, Nevada
The San Martín Campus of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals officially opened on November 8, 2006. The 30-acre campus is an extension of St. Rose's nearly 60-year tradition of providing quality, compassionate care to all members of the community.

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