St. Josephs General Hospital

Name :

St. Josephs General Hospital

Address  :

2137 Comox Ave

Town  :

Comox

State  :

British Columbia

Country  :

CANADA

Post Code:

V9M 1P2

Phone  :

250 339 2242

Web URL  :

Available

Description

St Josephs General Hospital is owned by the Bishop of Victoria A Corporation sole and is directed locally by a Board of Directors comprised of Comox Valley residents

Within the Province of British Columbias health insurance system and by an Affiliation Agreement with the Vancouver Island Health Authority St Josephs General Hospitals mandate is to provide acute complex care residential and ambulatory health services to meet the present and future needs of the communities which it serves

The Hospitals approach is to conduct such services in a Christian value based atmosphere of quotCare With Compassionquot in the Catholic tradition of the Healing Ministry

St Josephs General Hospital began in 1913 when the Comox Logging Company inquired of the Bishop of Victoria whether an Order of Sisters could be found to provide care for their loggers and their families It was the Sisters of St Josephs of Toronto who responded to this invitation bringing Christian virtues and traditions With the introduction of the Provincewide health insurance system in the 1960s that invitation to now includes all residents of BC and specifically those residing in the North Island

In 1989 the Sisters of St Josephs transferred ownership to the Diocese of Victoria A Corporation sole

St Josephs is a general community hospital that also provides regional services As a general community hospital it serves the 65000 people of the Comox Valley from Bowser in the South to the Oyster River in the North including the islands of Denman and Hornby

As a hospital providing regional specialist services it serves 125000 residents of the North Island from Bowser in the South to Port Hardy in the North Tahsis in the West and Powell River in the East and all the islands in between

St Josephs is a 234 bed 109 Acute Care and 125 Complex Care facility It provides a full spectrum of services normally found in a facility serving a population of this size with specialties in Anesthesia Ear Nose amp Throat Emergency Medicine General Surgery Gynecology Internal Medicine Obstetrics Ophthalmology Orthopaedics Pathology Pediatrics Psychiatry Radiology and Urology in addition to a full compliment of Family Practitioners Midwives and Oral Surgeons as well as Dentists all supported by a full spectrum of technology and staff in diagnostic imaging laboratory and rehabilitation medicine

On behalf of the Diocese of Victoria the Hospitals Board of Directors the Hospital Foundation physicians staff and volunteers we wish to extend our warmest welcome We hope you find within this website evidence of our true quotCare With Compassionquot as we assist you in your needs

Please do not hesitate to email us to tell us how we can help you Our purpose is to serve

History

St Josephs Hospital History
In the summer of 1913 four Toronto nuns of the Sisters of St Joseph landed in Comox answering the call of Bishop MacDonald of Victoria to set up a hospital in the logging area of the Comox Valley They were on a mission of love and mercy a creed that has endured the decades in St Josephs General Hospital

Sisters MaJella Claudia Praxedes and St Edmund quickly set up an eightroom farm house as the first convent hospital in the area The construction of additions brought enough room for 10 patients by the following February and then for 25 patients by August

Soldiers from the 102 Battalion of the Royal Canadian Army training camp set up in the Comox Valley in 1916 for World War I were often treated at the hospital

In 1918 the Spanish flu epidemic invaded the Valley and the hospital was filled to over flowing For a time there were so many victims that the school had to be converted into a temporary hospital

Yet another addition in 1923 increased the hospital capacity to 35

The next expansion was in 1937 built of brick and concrete and housing 68 beds That structure still stands today serving outpatients and some additional services For 30 years it met the needs of the community until a new acutecare facility was constructed in 1968 With that St Josephs became the general hospital for the region

In 1982 a new lobby and laboratory were added along with a rehabilitation medicine centre

Population in the region has continued to steadily increase and further additions have come both in bed capacity and health care services A residential care addition housing 75 residents came in 1982 then in 1993 50 more residential spaces were added A psychiatry unit of 18 beds was added followed by a 4 bed psychiatric intensive care unit in 2005 as the regional center for psychiatric services for the North Island

In 1989 the Sisters of St Joseph withdrew from the ownership and administration of the hospital The Diocese of Victoria now continues that work in conjunction with the Hospital Board of elected and appointed members

1994 brought extensive renovations and expansion to the kitchen a new cafeteria staff lounge and conference rooms In 1995 a medical day care was added and surgical day care was renovated

In 1997 an ambulatory care expansion of the laboratory diagnostic imaging emergency and outpatient areas was completed as well as a complete upgrade to fire protection systems

In the past five years there have been extensive renovations to the intensive care unit a cancer care centre and the addition of a pediatrics sunroom and a nuclear medicine wing was constructed in 2006