St. Marys Medical Center

Name :

St. Marys Medical Center

Address  :

2900 First Avenue

Town  :

Huntington

State  :

West Virginia

Country  :

USA

Post Code:

25702

Phone  :

1 304 526 1234

Web URL  :

Available

Description

About Us
St Marys Medical Center is the largest medical facility in Huntington Cabell Countys largest private employer 2600 employees and at 393 beds is among the largest healthcare facilities in West Virginia

As a teaching facility associated with the Joan C Edwards Marshall University School of Medicine St Marys trains medical residents in several specialties The hospital campus is home to the St Marys School of Nursing the St Marys School of Medical Imaging and the St Marys School of Respiratory Care All three programs are associated with Marshall University

St Marys Centers of Excellence in Cardiac care Cancer treatment EmergencyTrauma services and Neuroscience feature the exceptional technology and medical expertise that make St Marys Medical Center the regions medical leader Advanced medical care delivered with compassion is the hallmark of St Marys reputation

Our Mission
On November 6 1924 the Sisters of the Pallottine Missionary Society opened St Marys Hospital on a foundation of faith The sisters built St Marys on a set of core values which can still be seen in the Medical Centers lobby today From the moment when St Marys first opened its doors the sisters set out to fulfill their mission

quotWe are inspired by the love of Christ to provide quality health care in ways which respect the Godgiven dignity of each person and the sacredness of human lifequot

And so began the tradition that is St Marys Medical Center It has been nearly eight decades since the doors were first opened and during that time thousands of lay people have joined the Sisters in fulfilling the Medical Centers mission Along the way St Marys has built on a tradition of faith a tradition of hope a tradition of healing and a tradition of service Most of all St Marys has built on a tradition of care

Values
Values are the guiding principles for all our actions They reflect our beliefs and our aspirations and provide stability in a time of change At St Marys a strong belief in our core values is interwoven into the fabric of our culture These values reflect what we stand for what we expect from ourselves and each other and what we aspire to be

Because the love of Christ is the motivating force for all we do we have arranged our core values to His Name

COMPASSION HOSPITALITY REVERENCE INTERDEPENDENCE STEWARDSHIP TRUST

Each of us at St Marys is committed to these values and to making them present in our relationships with those we are privileged to serve and with each other Our values will guide us as we continue our tradition of excellence and dedication to heal all we touch

Each of our values is symbolized by the hands on the beautiful wood carvings in St Marys main lobby These pieces of art will be a constant reminder for us to make our values a reality

Compassion
Showing loving concern and understanding for the whole person

Compassion means to feel with therefore we try to put ourselves in the place of others and be present to them in their suffering and need We wish to allow Gods compassion to become alive in our words and actions We strive to reach out to others touch their lives and gently communicate love through generous service

Hospitality
A warm helpful and welcoming attitude toward all persons

We want everyone coming to St Marys to feel at home welcome comfortable cared for and secure Hospitality calls us to be courteous welcoming and attentive to the needs of others

Reverence
Respect for the Godgiven diginity of each person

We believe that all persons are created by God in His image Human life is therefore of extraordinary value and sacred at every moment and stage development Reverence calls us to treat every person with respect and dignity and to care for everyone irrespective of race creed age and socioeconomic status We wish to care for people so that they become whole and grow into the persons God wants them to be

Interdependence
Cooperation and collaboration among all members of our health care community

The members of all our departments as well as trustees and volunteers strive to work together as a team to make high quality health care a reality We are committed to maintaining close working relationships and collaborating with physicians various community agencies and health care providers to meet our communitys health care needs

Stewardship
Responsible use of and accountability for our human material and financial resources

Resources in health care belong to the Creator We heal because God heals have skills because God has created us with the wonderful capacities for learning and inventing We strive to be good stewards of the gifts and resources entrusted to us and use them to create a healthy community and within our means to respond to the needs of the poor through service and advocacy

Trust
Integrity truthfulness and straightforwardness in relationships

St Marys Medical Center is a place of trust where all who enter find physical psychological and spiritual security We strive to respect others right to privacy promote confidentiality at all levels and to communicate clearly and accurately what can be expected of us and what we expect of others We are committed to reflecting faithfulness to our mission values and policies in the way we perform our healing ministry

History

History of St Marys Medical Center
A hospital never sleeps The demanding business of caring for the sick and the injured goes on 24 hours a day seven days a week at St Marys Medical Center But the rhythm of that care slows in the late night and early morning when the days visitors are gone and the center is left to its trained staff and those over whom they so carefully keep watch

The hours tick slowly by Finally dawn nears Outside the first rays of sun soon appear and inside the medical centers public address system crackles to life quotGood morning and welcome to St Marys Medical Center May we pause for a few moments of prayer and reflection as we begin our day together

quotGod thank you for the gift of this day and for all the gifts that we will share with each other May the gifts of healing of hospitality and hope be in this place We ask for your peace for all our patients and family Through your love may the joy of life be given to all who come here Amenquot

Its the beginning of another day at St Marys Medical Center Another day that will be filled with tears and laughter with love and concern with compassion and caring Especially caring

Its been that way for more than 78 years since the Pallottine Missionary Sisters provided the foundation for what is today the largest tertiarycare hospital in our TriState region and Cabell Countys largest private employer

Inspired by founder St Vincent Pallottis motto quotThe Love of Christ Impels Usquot the Pallottines came to America from Germany in 1912 Four Sisters left from Bremerhaven bound for the United States They had booked passage on the Titanic Fortunately for them one of the Sisters travel documents were not in order so they were forced to delay their trip The illfated Titanic sailed into history without them The Sisters took another ship

As if one brush with disaster wasnt enough another soon unfolded Upon their arrival in America the Sisters were scheduled to travel by train to Stella Niagara New York where they were to study English under the Sisters of St Francis Before boarding the train they received a telegram from the Mother Superior of the Franciscans asking them to delay their journey until she could join them Therefore the train left without them Before it reached Stella Niagara it wrecked killing many of its passengers Again the Sisters were spared

On August 12 1912 the Sisters left Stella Niagara for Richwood West Virginia where they opened a school and the next year a hospital In 1921 they opened a second West Virginia hospital in Buckhannon And in 1924 Bishop John J Swint of Wheeling invited the Sisters to open a hospital in Huntington

To house the new hospital the Sisters purchased two buildings that had been home to a failed preparatory school The larger of the two became the hospital itself while the second a gymnasium became the Sisters convent Both buildings were in disrepair Because funds were limited the Sisters did much of the repair work themselves aided by volunteers from St Josephs Parish Finances were so tight its said that holes in some of the cooking pots in the kitchen were patched with bread dough On November 6 1924 the Sisters were ready to open their 35bed hospital and place it under the protection of Mary the Mother of God

The next day St Marys admitted its first patient a charity case the beginning of the hospitals long tradition of caring for the poor

In the hospitals earliest years the Sisters did all the work They nursed the sick and injured cooked served washed ironed cleaned fired the clunky coal furnace and even grew their own fruits and vegetables

As the hospitals number of patients continued to grow both the Sisters and the doctors realized the nursing staff had to be increased Hence the idea of a School of Nursing was conceived and in due course the new school was chartered by the State of West Virginia on May 26 1926 In June of 1927 St Marys accepted its first intern Dr Harry E Beard a graduate of the Medical College of Virginia

When the Pallottine Sisters arrived in Huntington the city had nearly a dozen hospitals but all were privately owned most were small some had only 10 or 12 beds and none were in any sense of the word a community hospital Frustrated doctors frequently had difficulty finding hospital accommodations for their patients Little wonder that the fledgling St Marys quickly became a busy place After only 14 months of operation the new hospital had 59 physicians on staff and many of those physicians were urging the Sisters to expand

And so in 1930 a new threestory addition was constructed increasing the hospitals capacity to 110 beds Expansion was to become a continuing theme in the hospitals history

In 1931 St Marys took a major step forward when it received the formal approval of the American College of Surgeons In 1933 the hospitals Crippled Childrens Clinic opened

Soon the shortage of beds again was acute and despite the twin ravages of the Great Depression and the 1937 flood that inundated much of Huntington St Marys raised 200000 in contributions from the community to finance the construction of a new wing The wing was dedicated on November 9 1938 It had been a busy 14 years since the Sisters had come to Huntington and opened a hospital

Plunged into war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941 the nation found itself in urgent need of trained nurses and so St Marys expanded enrollment at its School of Nursing

By wars end the number of student nurses had increased so dramatically that the hospital was hardpressed to accommodate them A decision was made that the school needed a new modern building and thats what was dedicated October 14 1947

Even before then however in 1946 the hospital had successfully completed its most ambitious project to date construction of the fivestory South Wing and the addition of fourth and fifth floors to the 1930 addition On November 6 1949 St Marys marked its 25th anniversary with an open house and a Pontifical High Mass of Thanksgiving From its original 35 beds St Marys had grown to 350 However the hospitals most exciting period of growth was still to come

By 1950 overcrowding forced the addition of a sixth floor to the wings built in 1938 and 1945 And in 1958 St Marys broke ground for yet another addition The former prep school building that had housed the hospitals first patients was demolished to make way for a modern sixstory East Wing The 1958 project also included construction of a new convent The former gymnasium that had been home to the Sisters since 1924 was demolished and the Sisters moved into new quarters on Christmas Eve 1959

On March 21 1971 St Marys broke ground on the hospitals quotsixth major expansionquot since it opened its doors in 1924 And on November 24 1974 St Marys celebrated its 50th anniversary by dedicating its new addition

Open heart surgery became a reality in the TriState on September 24 1979 when the first open heart operation was performed in St Marys new 235 million heart unit No longer would patients living in the Huntington area have to travel to Cleveland or Lexington for a coronary bypass or to correct defective heart valves

St Marys recognized the need to make coming to the hospital easier for those who simply need testing or sameday surgical procedures And on July 18 1995 St Marys took a big step in that direction when it broke ground for a new outpatient center

In December 1995 cancer care in the TriState took a major step forward with the announcement that St Marys was affiliating with the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center one of the national leaders in the field By July 1997 the outpatient facility was completed and opened its doors providing the community with outpatient surgical and diagnostic services as well as additional physician offices

The Breast Center at St Marys was dedicated on October 14 1997 The Center is home to stateoftheart breast imaging equipment

On August 1 1999 St Marys dedicated its new Radiation Oncology Center part of a 5 million renovation to the radiation therapy department The department houses two stateoftheart triple energy linear accelerators that significantly improve the hospitals ability to perform the latest in radiation therapy

November 6 1999 marked the 75th Anniversary of St Marys Hospital The amazing transformation from a humble 35bed hospital to the secondlargest facility in the state was celebrated by the entire TriState community

The Joslin Diabetes Center of Boston an international leader in diagnosing and treating diabetes opened a center at St Marys in January 2000 Major League Baseball player Rick Reed was on hand for the dedication of the center and spoke to the staff before making a donation to the hospital The St Marys and Joslin partnership created the only facility in West Virginia offering a unique comprehensive program for diabetes care

In August 2002 St Marys Board of Directors and the Pallottine Missionary Sisters agreed that the hospital would be renamed St Marys Medical Center The new name reflects the facilitys scope of services outreach and education to the community level of diagnostic capabilities and advanced technologies Despite the new name St Marys remains committed to its mission of being the hallmark of compassion and quality care in the region

Today St Marys Medical Center has evolved from its humble beginnings into a healthcare giant that serves patients drawn not just from Huntington and the area immediately around it but from 20 counties in three states And certainly much has changed over the medical centers long history

But one thing hasnt changed St Marys remains in the words of a morning prayer a place quotof healing of hospitality and of hopequot