In 1873, four Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas, opened a hospital in a small 6-room brick house at 14th Avenue and Arapahoe St. in Denver. Last month, St. Joseph Hospital, affectionately called “St. Joe’s” and now part of Intermountain Health, marked its 150th anninversary.
“We must be doing something right to be around and not only surviving for 150 years but thriving for 150 years,” hospital president Jamie Smith told the Denver Catholic. “It is truly a special place because of our faith-based mission, because of the commitment of our caregivers to that mission, and the spirit of the sisters and the charism they brought to this ministry—one of joy at work, of serving the patient and keeping the patient at the center of everything that we do.”
The founding sisters, with $9 between them, had arrived in Denver at the request of Colorado’s pioneer bishop, Joseph Machebeuf.
“I think the thing about us coming out here before Colorado was even a state really speaks to our beginnings in the community,” Sister of Charity Renee Washut told the Denver Catholic, noting that the hospital and Denver have grown together.
“Bishop Machebeuf wanted the hospital before anything,” she said. “So, we started begging in the mining communities—in the saloons after payday the sisters would be at the doors asking for donations.”
With the solicited funds and donated house, they opened the hospital on Sept. 22, 1873.
After a couple of moves to larger quarters, in 1876 they built a $40,000, three-story brick hospital with 30 beds at what became their longtime site at 18th Avenue and Humboldt Street. To honor the foster father of Jesus and Bishop Machebeuf, they christened it St. Joseph’s.
Over the years, the hospital underwent various additions and new buildings—two of which featured iconic twin towers. Today the 2014 state-of-the-art facility is located at East 19th Avenue and Lafayette Street. It has remained in the same vicinity for nearly all its history.
“We are in our fifth building right now,” Smith said. “(The sisters) have always adapted and grown with the needs of the community and the population, but always with an attention to their original mission, which is to deliver faith-based health care, and that’s sacrosanct, whether it was the sisters delivering it, or us delivering it now. That is bedrock.”
“And a preference for the poor and vulnerable—that has always been a part of our mission. We take care of everyone who walks through our doors, and we treat everybody with dignity and respect. We really believe that each of our patients is a child of God,” he said.
St. Joseph’s nursing students arranged on hospital steps circa 1908-1912. The students wear a striped uniform, white apron, and caps. Photo provided.
The seven-story facility has 400 hospital beds, an emergency department, a neonatal intensive care unit, a roof-top helicopter pad and a chapel. It has more than 2,600 caregivers, nearly 1,600 physicians and advanced practice providers, and more than 150 volunteers.
St. Joseph’s is Denver’s second oldest hospital and was Colorado’s first private teaching hospital. It remains one of Denver’s top hospitals.
“To see 150 years later what the Lord has brought forth through the arms and works of the Sisters of Charity is amazing and a big part of the history of Colorado,” Sister Renee said.
Sister Renee, a Sister of Charity for nearly 60 years, has volunteered at the hospital for 17 years. She leads Cookie Mondays, for which she bakes 23 dozen cookies to deliver to all the caregivers in a different unit each week as a pick-me-up. She is also the administrator of a humanitarian fund that provides no-interest loans to associates in crisis.
Sister Carol Depner, a Sister of Charity for 62 years, is a hospital volunteer of eight years. She helps with Cookie Mondays. She also works one day a week in the emergency room as a patient and family visitor.
“It’s a wonderful ministry,” Sister Carol said. “I just present myself. If they wish to pray, I do that with them. It’s also a great way to help the caregivers—the nurses and doctors. It’s a way of accompanying staff as well as the patient and their family.”
Both sisters are former educators and have worked in senior housing. Sister Carol also has experience as a hospital technologist and serves at a homeless shelter.
St. Joe’s was called St. Vincent’s the first two years of its existence after the 17th-century French priest Vincent de Paul, patron of charities. Sister Carol explained, “His rule is what our charism is based on.”
In his book “Colorado Catholicism,” historian Tom Noel notes that when the sisters opened the hospital in 1873, “The sisters did all the nursing, cooking, washing, and housekeeping, and a good deal of the doctoring. Their hospital filled rapidly, forcing the nuns to live in the attic…. Still, the sisters would not turn anyone away, they practiced their order’s motto: ‘The greatest of these is charity.’”
“We call ourselves the heart of health care in Denver,” Sister Carol said. “When we built the new hospital in 2014, we chose not to move to the suburbs so we could stay in touch with the vulnerable in the urban corridor. We are privileged and so proud to have wonderful coworkers and medical staff and administration. All of them are equally involved.”
Registered nurse Vicki Vowell has served at St. Joe’s for 51 years. During that time, she has worked in a variety of areas, from intensive care to dialysis. With a master’s degree in nursing education, today she serves as a nursing professional development specialist in wound care.
What has kept her at St. Joe’s for more than half a century?
“First off, the mission was very important to me…serve the underserved. Just to serve period is important to me,” she said. “The sisters created a great atmosphere of love and caring.”
That St. Joe’s is faith-based and has “a really robust nursing professional practice teaching team,” is also key, she said.
“I truly believe I have a call to be a nurse,” Vowell said, adding that when she was choosing a career, teaching and nursing were the two main choices available to women. “The gifts I have fit very well with nursing. I teach, too, so now I’ve got both!”
The hospital’s theme for their 150th anniversary gala was Spirit of the Sisters, and several Sisters were honored at the event: Back row: Sister Carol Depner, Rita Turley, chairwoman of Leaven Ministries Board; Sister Sheila Karpan, Sister Melissa Camardo, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth board member; Sister Amy Willcott, Sister Rosemary Kolich, and Sister Michael Delores Allegri. Seated are Sister Mary Jo Anzik, Sister Mary Lyons, and Sister Renee Washut. Photo provided.
A hallmark of the healing ministry offered at St. Joe’s is that it is holistic care, Smith said.
“We make sure to emphasize the spirit in addition to the mind and the body,” he said. “Healing doesn’t just happen in the physical dimension.”
St. Joe’s heart care program is top-rated for the Rocky Mountain Region and is ranked among the best in the nation.
“We are among the top one percent in the country for heart surgery,” Smith said.
A nearly 10-year partnership with National Jewish Health, which is known for world-class respiratory care, has resulted in the hospital offering the largest adult cystic fibrosis in-patient unit in the nation, Smith said.
But what the hospital may be best known for, is birthing babies.
“We’ve delivered the most babies in Colorado. I can safely say that because we’ve been around so long,” Smith said with a laugh.
St. Joe’s is a top baby hospital in Denver, delivering 4,000 babies a year. It is among the top in the nation regarding in-patient experience scores.
“St. Joseph Hospital is a gem,” Smith said. “It’s a gem in the community not only for providing care in a unique way, in a holistic way. But at the same time, we have high standards for quality and patient experience, which are very objective across the whole industry.”
“There’s truly a spirit here that you can feel—it’s palpable. We’re proud of that,” Sister Carol said. “Mother Xavier Ross, our (order’s) foundress, famously said, ‘Look forward to the good that is yet to be.’ There is more to look forward to.”