|
|
|
|
| Name |
Saint Francis Hospital and Health Centers |
| Address |
241 North Road |
| |
| Town |
Poughkeepsie |
| State |
New York |
| Country |
USA |
| Post Code |
12601 |
| Phone |
845 483 5000 |
| Fax |
|
| Email |
| Website |
YES
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Specialization Of Saint Francis Hospital and Health Centers
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
About Saint Francis Hospital and Health Centers
** About Us **
Welcome to Saint Francis Hospital and Health Centers
Founded by the Sisters of St. Francis of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, Saint Francis Hospital opened its doors in 1914 with 40 beds and treated 751 patients in its first year. Ninety years later, the hospital is licensed for 400 beds, serves over 10,000 inpatients each year, and provides an additional 325,000 outpatient procedures or treatments annually to adults and children in multiple locations throughout the Mid Hudson Valley. While our hospital has grown significantly in size and the scope of services we provide to our community, our dedication to providing the finest, compassionate, and innovative care for all who need our services has remained steadfast.
The team responsible for your stay at Saint Francis Hospital is committed to providing you with the very best care. Everyone, from physicians, nurses, and technicians, to hospital support personnel, dietary staff, and volunteers, is ready to assist you and your family with the resources necessary to provide for your recover and comfort.
** Mission **
Saint Francis Hospital brings together women and men dedicated to the healthcare needs of the people of our region. We personify the Catholic tradition of respect for life and the dignity and worth of each individual. We demonstrate that as a diversified health care system, our strength is rooted in our acute care foundation, our commitment to quality and excellence in all that we do, and our belief that wise utilization of our resources will enable us to endure, serving generations to come.
|
| |
History Of Saint Francis Hospital and Health Centers
The Sisters of St. Francis
Saint Francis Hospital is sponsored by the Sisters of St. Francis of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin. As a religious congregation of the Catholic Church, the Sisters continue the healing ministry of Jesus as inspired by the example of St. Francis of Assisi.
A Hospital is Born
On February 17, 1914 Saint Francis Hospital accepted its first official patient, Theodore Bromley, of 106 1 /2 North Clinton Street, Poughkeepsie. The new hospital contained 40 beds and treated 751 patients in its first year.
The opening culminated a lengthy campaign by local physicians and surgeons to establish a new hospital in Poughkeepsie that would welcome people of all faiths to practice. The area's growing population was taxing the capacities of the city's two private sanitariums and Vassar Brothers Hospital, which opened in 1887. Only three of the 30 physicians practicing locally had privileges at Vassar Brothers. Dr. James E. McCambridge would recall years later how physicians were forced to do surgery on kitchen or dining room tables. Tonsil clinics, in which 15 children at a time would have operations, were conducted in the basement of a church or community hall.
The seed that was to give birth to Saint Francis Hospital may well have been planted by McCambridge himself—on a fishing trip. McCambridge had gone fishing with local attorney James E. Carroll. The two men were joined by Carroll’s brother, Monsignor Thomas Carroll, a Poughkeepsie native who served as secretary to John Cardinal Farley. At the trip’s conclusion, the Monsignor promised to speak to the Cardinal about the possibility of bringing a hospital to Poughkeepsie. Cardinal Farley agreed to find a community of Sisters to staff the hospital if the community could raise the needed funding. The Sisters of St. Francis agreed to staff the hospital. In the following month, local organizers began their preparations, including selection of a site.
Hillcrest Park Mansion, the residence of Daniel Webster Wilbur who served as mayor of Poughkeepsie, struck everyone as the ideal location for the hospital. "It offers the quiet and beauty of a suburb and is at the same time readily accessible to Poughkeepsie City," noted one contemporary writer.
Approached by a physician friend about the possibility of selling the property, Wilbur volunteered to give the residence and several acres of land to the Sisters of Saint Francis. In addition, he offered to sell three adjoining stucco cottages and eight small frame houses. When the deal was finally struck by the Sisters' attorney, John J. Mylod, the price was $50,000. A cash payment of $16,000 was made, with the remainder covered by mortgages. In all, the hospital property covered nearly 30 acres, including an adjoining parcel of 2.5 acres purchased from the Fairview Improvement Co.; Fairview parted with the land for the sum of one dollar.
The main house was built in the 1850’s for Stephen Baker, a U.S. Congressman and a founder of the Republican Party. As part of Saint Francis Hospital, it served first as the hospital's main building, later as a maternity ward, then as a residence for student nurses, and finally as administrative office space. Known in its final years as Mary Immaculate Hall, it was demolished in April 1983.
The first few years were a time of both growth and struggle for the new hospital. In 1916 and again in 1919, fires heavily damaged buildings. An influenza epidemic in 1918 brought hundreds of patients to Saint Francis Hospital. As many as 300 people were treated without charge that year. "There were many days...when affairs looked very black indeed, and when by only the most stringent economy were we able to keep our institution open," wrote a historian of the hospital in 1922. It was in 1919 that a committee of local citizens launched a major funding drive for Saint Francis Hospital, which after only five years in operation, was feeling the need for larger, more modern facilities. Despite the national war debt, nearly $100,000 was gathered. Even as fundraising proceeded, the hospital was growing, with ten beds added in 1920 thanks to an $18,000 gift from local banker Oakleigh T. Thorne.
In 1921, the hospital board approved construction of a new main building, a four-story brick structure that would include, among other things, three large operating rooms, one of which was dedicated to eye, ear, nose, and throat surgery; private and semiprivate rooms; a 12-bed men's ward; and a 12-bed women's ward.
When the unit opened the following year, there was one more grand touch: a subway connecting the hospital's buildings, thanks to a $20,000 donation provided by Archbishop Patrick Hayes.
In 1924, the new Roosevelt main building was opened, replacing the original mansion and providing 60 beds for patients. Twenty-seven years later, in 1951, the Oakleigh T. Thorne and Joseph T. Towers Wings were dedicated, more than doubling the size of the hospital at a cost of $2.3 million. In 1959, the Spellman Pavilion was added, and Mss was celebrated in the new chapel for the first time. Expansion continued at the hospital with the 1977 dedication of the Neumann Wing, followed by the 1982 construction of the Cooke Pavilion.
In 1985, Saint Francis Hospital acquired the former Highland Hospital in Beacon which today serves as The Turning Point, a 100-bed inpatient and outpatient alcohol and chemical dependency treatment center. The campus also serves as a home to The WorkPlace® -- the hospital's occupational health program -- and the Special Needs Preschool Program.
Home Care Services was added in 1987 and the following year, the hospital established a Day Care Program in the Convent that eventually expanded to a second, larger site in Spackenkill.
A then state-of-the-art 3-dimensional, high-speed helical CAT Scan system was acquired in 1990, and the hospital became the first in the area to own and operate its own MRI unit. In 1991, the hospital opened the Sleep Disorders Lab, which in 2003 received a 5 year accreditation and designation as a Sleep Center.
In 1992, Saint Francis Hospital adopted a "CREST of Values" to serve as the guiding principles for each individual who shares in our mission. Each member of the Saint Francis team works individually and collaboratively to make our values of Creativity, Respect, Excellence, Service and Teamwork present in dealings with each other and those we are privileged to serve.
To recognize its work as a leader in Orthopedics, the Hospital established the Orthopedic Center of Excellence in 1993, and today offers the only fully-dedicated Joint Replacement Center in the region.
Also in 1993, Saint Francis Hospital was designated as the Area Trauma Center by the New York State Department of Health. It was recognized as the busiest Level II Trauma Center in New York State in 2004.
In 1995, a $5 million capital drive was undertaken to expand trauma and emergency facilities-- creating the George T. Whalen Family Trauma Center -- and to upgrade patient monitoring systems in the Emergency Room and Operating Room. Additionally, the Endoscopy Suite and Same Day Surgery Center were added, the latter of which would be named for legendary philanthropist James J. McCann. Mair Way -- the Hospital's main passageway connecting The Atrium to the main hospital building – was named for Hospital and Hudson Valley benefactors Peg and Bill Mair who left the Hospital a major bequest of $1 million that was included in this campaign.
Responding to requests from physicians who wanted to locate their offices close to the hospital, the Medical Office Building at 243 North Road opened in 1998. Two years later The Atrium at Saint Francis Hospital – a 150,000 sq. ft. facility – opened featuring a new state-of-the-art ambulatory surgery center, diagnostic imaging center, community conference center, cafeteria, and private physician offices.
Saint Francis Hospital suffered the loss of its President Emeritus, Sister Ann Elizabeth, who died on March 17, 2002 at age 91. She was an integral part of the hospital and its guiding light for almost 70 years, holding leadership positions in the School of Nursing and the Hospital. Sister Ann served as Administrator and President of Saint Francis Hospital from 1962 until her retirement in 2001. In recognition of her extraordinary service, the Atrium Surgery Center was dedicated to Sr. Ann in 2001.
The Saint Francis Hospital Cancer Center opened in 2002, followed by the dedication of the Fr. Brinn Center for Psychiatric Care in the Emergency Care Center in 2003.
Now, as in 1913 when five Sister foundresses responded to Community needs, the Sisters of St. Francis continue to be present and look forward with the entire Saint Francis Hospital team to upholding this noble legacy as we approach one century of service.
|
|
Back To List
|
|
|
|
