Memorial Hospital

Description

WELCOME TO MEMORIAL
Serving the community since 1958 Memorial Hospital a 316bed independently owned and operated community hospital located just 15minutes east of downtown St Louis Missouri provides a full range of inpatient and outpatient services

With over 2200 full and parttime employees and a Medical Staff of over 300 physicians representing 44 specialties Memorial is the areas sixth largest employer

Memorial is the areas largest provider of surgical services and diagnostic imaging as well as physical therapyrehab services Memorial also operates the metroeasts largest Emergency Department with 50000 annual visits Memorial also operates a 108bed skilled nursingrehab facility adjacent to the hospital

Mission Statement
Providing exceptional healthcare and compassionate service

Vision Statement
Memorial in partnership with its medical staff employees volunteers and the communityis committed to being the healthcare provider of choice by

Deliveing extraordinary clinical care and compassionate service to patients
every day

Continually identifying performance improvement opportunities

Expanding services based on community need and enhancing accessibility to
care

Providing physical facilities and acquiring the advanced technology to
exceed patient and physician expectations

Being the employer of choice continuing to recruit and retain skilled staff
committed to providing service excellence to patients visitors and co
workers

History

Memorial Hospitals history began not with a 1955 groundbreaking or with a 1947 corporate charter but decades earlier with the growing conviction among Belleville physicians and others that the city needed an additional hospital

We need new hospital facilities desperately said Dr Edmund Bechtold in 1920 in words which still ring with a sense of urgency and determination Our boys fought the Great War so that we could build a better world Lets build it

Within a few years members of several Belleville Evangelical and Reformed churches later the United Church of Christ had embraced the hospital cause led by the Reverend Otto Pessel of St Pauls who devised the sale of bricks as a fundraising plan The bricks were actually sold by volunteers for 1 each and pasted onto sheets The sale of bricks netted 4000 which was invested and 20 years later was turned over with interest to the newly charted hospital corporation

Meanwhile however came the Crash in 1929 and interest in building an expensive new hospital waned But by 1935 the areas physicians were again insisting that the need was critical

This matter is becoming serious Dr RJ Joseph said Unless Belleville soon creates some new hospital facilities any epidemic or public catastrophe would be disastrous

These concerned doctors continued to meet over the next 10 years or more and on August 4 1947 their years of work began to bear fruit with the incorporation of the Protestant Hospital Builders Club The founders were the Reverend BJ Koehler president Oliver C Joseph vice president WA Schickedanz secretaryfinance director and Walter A Keil treasurer

A fund drive that year raised 400000 in cash and pledges and a second drive a year later added another 200000 to the total

With thrift and perseverance we of the Belleville area can do anything we set out to do said Schickedanz reflecting on the groups determination

By 1953 physicians of the area had enough confidence in the hospitals future to discuss the formation of a Medical Staff Thirtysix doctors met at the Elks club on August 4 and elected Dr LE Tegtmeier staff president Formal organization of the Medical Staff occurred April 2 1958 reelecting Dr Tegtmeier as medical staff president

By 1953 Walt Marsh became chairman of the building committee and within two years the board acting on his recommendations voted to sign the building contracts On December 4 1955 five days after the contracts were signed groundbreaking ceremonies were held

The board took these decisive steps even though it had not raised all of the money needed to build the hospital As the late Edward Kaufman a board member and the hospitals first patient once said There comes a time when we must act on faith to see the vision when reality is yet to come We need a hospital We will have a hospital

Fundraising continued in earnest Charles T Meyer joined the group and cochaired a 1000000 campaign in 195657 As Meyer recalled the need was acute money was so short the board elected to eliminate the air conditioning from the plans only to restore that option after the campaign succeeded

During the campaign Meyer and his cochairman Frank E Robison approached the late Bishop Albert Zuroweste of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville seeking his endorsement of the hospital project to avoid even the appearance of conflict with the Catholic community Bishop Zuroweste responded with a gracious letter supporting Memorial The letter was read at the campaign kickoff dinner held January 9 1957 at Belleville Township High School West gym

During the same campaign George Ludwig of Bellevile donated his Fairview Heights farm valued at 250000 to the hospital The farm occupied land now in the heart of Fairview Heights commercial district For a victory celebration later that year Ludwig too modest to appear in person sent a recorded message Each of us has to do what he can with what has been given to him The widow who gives her mite is giving as much as a millionaire When we give to our hospital we are only returning to the Lord what he has given us

Over 1200 volunteers helped in that campaign One of them was Ruth Kempf of Waterloo Though she was then an emergency room nurse at St Elizabeths Hospital in Belleville Kempf was determined not only to do her part to see that the new hospital was built but also to go to work there She is now an Auxiliary volunteer at Memorial

It was also in 1957 that a young hospital administrator from Fairfield Illinois was hired from a field of 400 applicants to head the Memorial staff Taylor O Braswell impressed the board with his eagerness and his willingness to embrace the vision of its founders

The hospital he noted is not just brick and mortar It was built as a result of a philosophy and a dream

Braswell whose name grew synonymous with Memorial Hospital over the years served 29 frac12 years as its chief executive officer before retiring in 1987

Harry R Maier who served as executive vice president since 1977 to 1986 was named president and chief executive officer in 1986 a position he held until his retirement in October 2006

Mark J Turner who had served as Memorials executive vice president and chief operating officer since 2004 was named to succeed Maier as president and CEO of the hospital and its related corporations

In its almost 50year history Memorial has had just three chief executive officers a distinction not many hospitals across the country can claim