Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare

Description

Few hospitals in our community have the breadth and depth of experience that you will find at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare St Joseph Founded in 1879 St Joseph is a general acute care tertiary teaching hospital providing acute and subacute care at its primary campus location 5000 W Chambers Street Milwaukee The hospital and its outpatient centers provide ambulatory care

Over A Century of Healthcare Excellence
St Joseph is the second largest private hospital in Milwaukee and serves as a referral and tertiary care center for southeastern and eastern Wisconsin

Our 538licensedbed facility is known throughout southeastern Wisconsin for our

Specialized Obstetrics
providing low through highrisk services including Prenatal Assessment Center highrisk antepartum care Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit TwintoTwin Transfusion Syndrome treatment Followup treatments through Pediatric Therapy Infant Apnea and Stepping Stones programs Our Womens Outpatient Center also provides care to atrisk populations

Emergency Department
247 services licensed certified Level III Trauma Center providing emergency care to approximately 80000 people a year

Heart Care
a leader in the treatment of heart disease spanning outpatient diagnostics to diagnostic and interventional cardiology cardiac surgery and rehabilitation The Heart Care Center offers cardiac catheterization laboratory chest pain ED protocols cardiac and thoracic surgery and more

Cancer Care
offers comprehensive care services including Novalisreg shaped beam radiosurgery surgery medical oncology radiation oncology inpatient services and support services of dietary social worker and spiritual care Includes intense modulated radiation therapy prostate seed implant palliative care unit

Rehabilitation
Including special Pediatric Therapy for our youngest patients sports medicine physical occupational hand spinal shoulder and speech therapies osteoporosis management and prevention foot and ankle pain management dizziness and balance programs and lymphedema treatment

Surgical services
comprehensive range of services

Other services
including neurology urology and gastroenterology and more

History

St Joseph Our History
When three Franciscan Sisters arrived on a mission to provide nursing care to Milwaukee in 1879 little did they know the longterm effect they would have in establishing one of the communitys first hospitals St Joseph

Humble Beginnings Sacred Mission
With the help of Capuchin friars and parishioners from St Francis Church the Sisters settled in their first home on Fourth and Walnut streets The Sisters relied almost entirely on charity to provide food and basic necessities for their clients even begging door to door A stable at the rear of the Sisters home was used to shelter cattle chickens and a horse The horse was hitched to the wagon used for the Sisters rural collection trips

Their payment for serving the sick was often was less than 150 a week yet the Sisters continued working day and night at the bedside of patients suffering from typhoid scarlet fever and other diseases

Increasing Healthcare Needs
As Milwaukee expanded so did its need for nursing Two more Sisters joined the group requiring a move to a larger home on Fourth and Reservoir Streets By 1882 a hospital was desperately needed and a group of city leaders agreed to help raise the 30000 to build a 40bed facility The Sisters home and surrounding property were chosen as the location for the new hospital The original hospital had no steam heat patient rooms were warmed by coal stoves Gas lights provided illumination at night On wash days the Sisters woke at midnight to rub clothes on a washboard and began patient care at dawn

Dramatic Growth Compassionate Care
A rapidly growing patient population spurred the construction of a new hospital at 51st and Chambers streets in 1928 dramatically increasing patient capacity and facilities With medical advances growing need for health services and the introduction of health insurance in the postwar era St Joseph developed and expanded a number of important programs

In 1960 a threestage expansion project increased the hospitals inpatient bed capacity and enlarged ancillary services In the 1970s initiatives included the debut of specialty services including the highlyacclaimed neonatal intensive care unit as well as cancer cardiac physical medicine and perinatal care units During the 1980s and 90s advances continued in all specialty areas

Over the years St Josephs growth as a regional medical center provided high quality health care to Southeast Wisconsin through comprehensive services and programs

The medical staff clinical team and support associates continue to be as committed as our founding Sisters in providing health services with sensitivity and compassion ministering to the physical spiritual and emotional needs of patients