Mount St Joseph Hospital

Description

WELCOME TO MOUNT SAINT JOSEPH
Mount Saint Joseph is a community hospital located on the east side of Vancouver BC The hospital offers both acute care and extended care services and is respected throughout the province for its multicultural focus and community programs Click here to download the Mount Saint Joseph Community Update in PDF format Or Click here to download a Community Update PDF in Chinese

History

Mount Saint Joseph Hospital opened in Vancouver in 1946 but it really started many years before that with the dream of a young Quebec girl Deacutelia Tetreault In 1902 her dream came true when she helped found the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception the first missionary congregation for women in Canada

In 1921 four Sisters moved to a home on Keefer Street in Vancouver where they provided health and education services primarily to the Asian community By the time the Sisters marked the 25year anniversary of their arrival in Vancouver their work had outgrown three buildings and in 1946 Mount Saint Joseph Hospital was opened

Today Mount Saint Joseph Hospital is a 208bed acute and extended care facility with an international reputation for excellence in providing for the needs of multifaith and multiethnic communities MSJH was founded on the principles of adaptability and responsiveness to everchanging community needs and continues to fulfill that mission by being faithful to the teaching of Mother Deacutelia who once said

Mount Saint Joseph Hospital opened in Vancouver in 1946 but it really started with the dream of a young Quebec girl many years before

Deacutelia Tetreault was born on February 4 1865 in Marieville a small country town near Montreal In her memoirs she wrote that as a child she had a dream that marked her whole life

All of a sudden I saw a ripe wheat field as far as the eye can see At a given moment the ears of wheat changed into heads of children and I understood that they represented the children of the world I was struck by this dream and told no one about it

The dream came true in 1902 when Deacutelia Tetreault in religious life known as Mother Mary of the Holy Spirit along with two companions founded the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception the first missionary congregation for women in Canada Mother Deacutelia felt it was time for Canada to enter into the missionary movement of the Church and she offered her life to this calling reaching out to the poor the underprivileged and especially those who did not know Jesus Christ

In 1909 the young congregation sent out its first missionaries a group of six Sisters who journeyed to Canton China via Vancouver The Chinese people always had a special place in Mother Deacutelias heart So it was no surprise when she responded to Archbishop Caseys request and sent four Sisters to Vancouver in 1921 They moved into a home on Keefer Street where they provided health and education services including a fourbed infirmary

In May 1924 the Sisters purchased another house at 236 Campbell Avenue and opened a dispensary With the need for their services increasing tremendously they built a new threestorey building next to their residence and in 1928 opened St Josephs Oriental Hospital The Sisters started a second dispensary in 1936 at 795 Pender Street which continued in operation until 1951 providing health services to the growing Asian community

Soon the facility on Campbell Street was no longer suited to the increasing demands of a quickly expanding population The Sisters decided to acquire a larger piece of land at 3080 Prince Edward Street and to start work on a new hospital In 1946 the 25th anniversary of the arrival of the Sisters in Vancouver Mount Saint Joseph Hospital was opened

From its humble beginnings Mount Saint Joseph Hospital has come a long way Some of the milestones in that time

1948 MSJ was recognized as a general hospital

1956 a 50bed wing was added thanks in part to the work of the newly created Ladies Auxiliary

Early 1960s a dramatic drop in maternity admissions led to a decision to close the maternity ward

1965 the chronic care department was converted to an Extended Care Unit with stateoftheart physiotherapy facilities

1969 a new threebed Intensive Care Unit was created

1970 the Day Care Surgery Centre was opened

1979 the Short Stay Assessment and Treatment Centre opened establishing the first specialized geriatric service of its kind in BC

1984 Mount Saint Joseph Foundation was established

1989 the Lifeline Emergency Response System was introduced Now the secondlargest program of its kind in Canada the system allows atrisk individuals to wear a button linking them to an emergency centre 24 hours a day allowing them to safely remain in their own homes

1991 an addition to the fourth floor paved the way for the new pediatric unit two years later the hospital joined forces with BCs Childrens Hospital to share expertise and to jointly operate MSJHs expanded pediatric wing

1992 in response to increasing needs in the community MSJH added a new Director of Multicultural Services and a Coordinator of Interpreter Services The hospital has become a leading voice in the development of public education sessions for ethnic communities and has taken a leadership role in hosting multicultural health conferences

Today Mount Saint Joseph Hospital is a 240bed acute and extended care facility with an international reputation for excellence in providing for the needs of multifaith and multiethnic communities MSJH was founded on the principles of adaptability and responsiveness to everchanging community needs and continues to fulfill that mission

During their 78 years in Vancouver a total of 173 Sisters have served the people through health care education parish work and family counseling Each and every Sister has tried to be faithful to the teaching of Mother Deacutelia who once said

Giving ourselves is our life It is not enough to thank God in wordswe must also transform our gratitude into actionsLet each of our lives be then through prayer sacrifice and work a perpetual hymn of thanksgiving for ourselves and for all those who forget to thank the One to whom they owe everything Let us be permeated with the thought live by it thoroughly and leave it as a heritage to those who will replace us


Giving ourselves is our life It is not enough to thank God in wordswe must also transform our gratitude into actions