The history of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center is the history of a mission and of “people committed to life,’’ according to Sister Mary Ellen Sprouffske, who has designed a “history wall’’ to make people aware of the hospital’s purpose and vision.
The wall, displaying eight large frames of photographs and historical information, will be unveiled at 2:30 p.m. Monday in the hospital lobby. Featuring more than 70 photos, it tells the story of the sisters of St. Joseph, who opened the hospital and operated it for many years, and who continue to sponsor it and oversee it as an institution committed to the healing mission of Jesus and to a concern for the poor, Sprouffske said.
She spent a year on the project, which began as a way for her to better acquaint herself with the hospital’s history and philosophy. “I’m always really interested in history, the area that I’m in. I want to learn everything about it,’’ Sprouffke said.
“I asked about the beginnings (of the hospital) and I got bitten by the bug.’’
Her desire to know more led her to develop the historical display for all hospital visitors to see.
“I think it’s important that people can see how our roots are intertwined with the community and that when they walk into the lobby, they’re walking into not just the hospital but something that has grown.’’
She said in her research she discovered three recurring themes: responding to the needs of the people, meeting the challenges of health care and receiving the support of the citizens.
“It was exciting for me to see how all of these things can be traced all the way through to the present,’’ she said.
The hospital was founded in response to the needs of the people, Sprouffke said.
In the words printed on the history wall: “1900 Lewiston, a city with great potential for growth and development, was in need of a public hospital. The sick requiring surgery or critical care had to travel, often by horse and wagon, to Walla Walla or Spokane for treatment. As a result, many patients died needlessly.’’
Two Jesuit priests, Father Michael Meyer and Father Hubert Post, both pastors of St. Stanislaus Church at Lewiston, recognized the need and sought Catholic nuns to take on this mission.
In 1902 four sisters of St. Joseph traveled to Lewiston from the Midwest to open the hospital. It began humbly, in a frame house on Snake River Avenue, while construction of a more modern hospital began at the current site on Normal Hill.
“The first years of St. Joseph’s Hospital were difficult,’’ according to the words on Sprouffske’s history wall. “The seven-room house was crowded and subject to periodic floods; equipment was crude and inadequate. Three sisters, working day and night, did all of the nursing, housekeeping and cooking as well as continued to solicit donations for the hospital rising on the hill.’’
Sprouffske said the hospital has continued responding to the needs of the people. As the history wall shows, a nursing school was added in 1919 to respond to the need for more nurses. Photographs also reveal how the hospital has expanded over the years, in size and in services.
Recent additions include the radiation oncology center, which was built to save patients the trip to Spokane for cancer treatment, as well as expanded outpatient services and a new magnetic resonance imaging machine.
“And they’re continually looking ahead. That’s what impresses me so much, is the vision, and that’s the vision the sisters had,’’ Sprouffske said.
The people of St. Joseph’s hospital also have continued to respond to the challenges of health care, she said. The first challenge was to pay for the construction of the new building, and the next was to find the money to support its continued operations while maintaining a commitment to serving the poor.
The words on the history wall describe those early days: “The sisters grew vegetables, raised chickens and pastured a cow in the field behind the hospital to meet some of the daily costs.
Patients often paid their bills with crops or poultry. After the first year, a day’s hospitalization was raised to $2, but still it was necessary for the sisters to beg in the outlying towns and among the mines in order for them and the hospital to survive.’’
Sprouffske said the sisters also responded to the challenge of hard work. They had to do all of the nursing and housekeeping themselves, and often put in 12-hour days, seven days a week.
“It’s just amazing to me, that kind of dedication, but that is still here,’’ Sprouffske said. “It’s kind of like you get caught by the spirit. ... I think people here believe in the values that this hospital was founded on.’’
And from the hospital’s first days, it had the support of the local people. Sprouffske said historic newspaper articles indicate that with each expansion, the generosity of the people grew. She said the hospital continues to receive strong support through the auxiliary, the foundation, the governing board and committees. Whenever a fund drive is held, the community response is outstanding, she said.
The photographs on the history wall take viewers from the hospital’s beginnings through to modern times and the latest advances in medical technology. The hospital has been here 88 years, and “they’re still carrying on that commitment of the early sisters,’’ Sprouffske said.
Within the next 12 years, one or two more framed displays will be added to the history wall to complete the diorama, which is titled, “St. Joseph First 100 Years.’’
“I wonder what the next twelve years will bring,’’ Sprouffske said. “I wonder what technology will be by then.’’
This story was published in the Feb. 25, 1990, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
