125 Years of Healing - The History of St. John's

In 1875, a delegation of 20 Hospital Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis traveled to Illinois from Telgte, Germany. Though they spoke no English and had little money, their mission was clear: care for the sick and the poor.

Bishop Peter Baltes dispatched the Sisters to several locations throughout Illinois. For the four who came to Springfield, the old Jacob Loose residence on South Seventh Street became both home and healing center. The reputation and expertise of the Hospital Sisters grew rapidly as they traveled by horse-drawn carriage to remote farmsteads, caring for the sick in their own homes.

In 1878, the Sisters laid the cornerstone for Springfield's first hospital -- St. John's. In 1886, the St. John's Hospital School of Nursing was founded, making it the first Catholic hospital school of nursing in the United States. St. John's is now the largest hospital in the Hospital Sisters Health System, a corporation that includes 13 hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin that developed from the original mission of 21 Sisters.

Through their leadership and dedication, those first Hospital Sisters established a tradition of excellence and compassion in health care. For over 120 years, St. John's has continued that tradition -- adopting the latest medical techniques to provide comprehensive care for the people of central Illinois.

We have taken a leadership role in many important areas of medical training and health care, such as serving as one of the earliest training programs in the nation for laboratory professionals, founding the first professional school for nurse anesthetists in America, performing the first open-heart surgery in central Illinois, and providing the only Level III perinatal care center in the area.

As a major teaching hospital, we help to educate more than 300 medical students and 150 resident physicians each year through our affiliation with the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. The original St. John's School of Nursing, which has evolved into St. John's College, Department of Nursing, has trained more than 4,000 men and women since its inception.

St. John's also cares for more cardiac patients each year than any other hospital in Illinois and recently established a heart transplant program. In keeping with our tradition of community outreach, we provide more than $27 million in benefits for the poor and broader community annually and co-sponsor the Children's Miracle Network in central Illinois.

Throughout all of the amazing medical advances and the turbulent social changes of the 20th century, we have remained true to the mission of the original Hospital Sisters: St. John's Hospital provides to the people of central Illinois a ministry of value-based health services in the Catholic tradition of compassionate care, justice, and reverence for life throughout its continuum.

We continue to pursue new ways to fulfill that mission.

The Carol Jo Vecchie Women and Children's Center at St. John's Hospital, which opened in 1997, gives expectant and new mothers all the comforts of home within the finest medical facility. The center houses modernized neonatal and pediatric intensive care units and provides specialized care in pediatric neurology, oncology, cardiology, urology, orthopedics, nephrology, and rehabilitation. The Prairie Heart Institute, houses our diagnostic and therapeutic cardiology, heart surgery, and cardiac rehabilitation services.

We invite you to explore the rest of our website and to return often as we continue expanding and improving this versatile resource. The Patient Services section will tell you more about the services and departments at St. John's Hospital. If you're interested in volunteer work or are a health care professional interested in employment opportunities at St. John's, visit the Careers section. And be sure to visit the News section for updates on the latest developments at St. John's and the Programs and Classes section to register online for our educational and community outreach offerings.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the website or for St. John's in general, please email us at contact@st-johns.org.

We hope you enjoy your visit!