Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, is marking its 150th anniversary. It was the first permanent hospital in Oregon.
The Sisters of Providence founded the facility, led by the trailblazing Mother Joseph. She and four other Sisters of Providence had made an arduous journey from Montreal to the Pacific Northwest, arriving in what was then known as the Washington Territory in 1856. According to Cornerstone: Reflections on Oregon's First and Future Hospital, a commemorative book that some retired Providence St. Vincent staff and a board member created, the sisters arrived on the frontier to find a world of rugged conditions and hardship. There were no hospitals, few schools and few charities to serve people in need.
After establishing a school, orphanage and small hospital in Vancouver, Washington, the sisters were besieged with requests from other frontier communities to establish more ministries. After pleas from the Diocese of Oregon City for the sisters to open a Portland hospital, the Sisters of Providence agreed to do so once they learned that the local St. Vincent de Paul Society would provide a parcel of land as well as $1,000 toward construction costs. The sisters named the hospital in the society's honor.
Cornerstone says Mother Joseph drew up the hospital's architectural plans herself, oversaw construction and even hand-selected construction materials. It is said that at one facility the sisters constructed, Mother Joseph once tore down and reconstructed a chimney herself when the masonry failed to meet her standards.
The sisters admitted their first patient to the Portland hospital in June 1875, a few weeks before the official opening of the three-story wood-frame hospital. One physician and five sisters ran the facility, which had the capacity for 75 patients.
In the ensuing century and a half, Providence St. Vincent has grown exponentially, relocating twice. Currently, the hospital has more than 5,000 staff and an inpatient capacity of 539 beds. According to a blog post on the anniversary, Providence St. Vincent is renowned for its cardiac program, research and innovation, spine care, neurological services, orthopedic care and cancer treatment.
As Providence St. Vincent marks its anniversary, it is in the process of updating the campus. It has renovated the emergency department and is building a heart hub. The projects are primarily funded by donors. These and projects at other Providence St. Joseph Health campuses in the Portland area are part of a $177 million capital project, with $144 million of that raised by donors.
In the blog post, Providence St. Vincent included the perspective of a patient who had a heart transplant there two years ago. Monica Olden, 64, says, "I can't say enough about the care I received. I get choked up every time I talk about my experience at St. Vincent. They're superheroes — all the doctors, nurses, phlebotomists, environmental services, all of them. I felt like a queen, really."