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Description

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St Clair at a Glance
St Clair Hospital is a 329bed independent acute care facility that provides advanced high quality health care to more than 400000 residents of southwestern Pennsylvania With 525 physicians and more than 2000 employees St Clair Hospital is the largest employer in Pittsburghs South Hills
Providing virtually every healthcare service that residents may need throughout their lives the Hospital is focused on continuously enhancing its services and technologies to ensure that the communitys health needs are met The Hospital offers a comprehensive array of inpatient and outpatient services including advanced cardiovascular services specialized care for women children and infants diabetes treatment oncology services emergency care general surgery services behavioral health services and pulmonary care

With its main campus in Mt Lebanon the Hospital also offers healthcare services at three outpatient centers including a diagnostic center located in Bethel Park A new medical office building and outpatient center is in development for Peters Township

St Clair Hospital is home to the regions largest Emergency Department with annual visits approaching 60000 patients To accommodate the growing needs of the community the Hospital recently completed a 135 million expansion of the department increasing capacity to 80000 visitors per year The ER is ranked in the top one percent nationwide in patient satisfaction

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History

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History
It all started with a need A need for South Hills residents to have their own quality and compassionate health care A need for emergency healthcare close to home

The opening of a new hospital was a long and sometimes arduous one for St Clair Hospitals founding fathers Dr Arthur S Haines a dedicated physician watched as the South Hills population started to grow dramatically during the Great Depression and throughout World War II The people living in the South Hills however had to travel across rivers and through tunnels to receive their medical care a journey that was often lifethreatening during an emergency

In 1944 as the war was coming to an end the need for emergency and general medical care close to home became even more pressing as returning soldiers moved into the South Hills communities and started families

Dr Haines started holding community meetings to increase interest in building a hospital in the South Hills But with no funding or property the idea of building a new hospital was just a field of dreams That challenge hardly fazed the men and women dedicated to this cause and for 10 years they tirelessly worked to raise funds and find property for the new facility

Together we can do it became their rallying cry

And together they did do it The Silhol family donated land on the corner of Bower Hill Road and Wren Drive for the hospital building Community members worked with area businesses for corporate and employee donations the newlyformed St Clair Hospital Auxiliary sponsored card parties in private homes and even children became involved by selling bouquets of flowers doortodoor

In October 1951 ground was broken for the new hospital to be named after the American patriot student of medicine and early Pittsburgher Major General Arthur St Clair 17361818 And our exceptional care started with one little girl more than 50 years ago

On February 22 1954 Margherita Daris awoke in her home in Carnegie to find her young daughter Antonietta still feverish from an infection she had been fighting for several days Margherita who with her husband Marcello had emigrated from Italy and spoke very little English turned to a neighbor for help

When the neighbor brought the young family to the hospital they noticed empty halls and a staff who acted as if Antonietta was the only patient They would soon find out that the hospital had just opened that morning and she was indeed the first and only patient at the new St Clair Hospital in Mt Lebanon During its first year of operation the Hospital admitted more than 4500 patients and treated 8500 emergency patients the need had been fulfilled

Over the last 50 years the Hospital has grown in ways that the founders never anticipated

Now an awardwinning stateoftheart healthcare facility St Clair Hospital continues to focus on the needs of the community and patients and that is what drives the Board of Directors physicians employees volunteers and auxiliary members to provide exceptional performance and quality care and to become a powerful force for healing in the South Hills and surrounding communities