St. John Health

History
The Sisters of St. Joseph started St. John Hospital in 1952 with 250 beds and 70 employees on Moross Road at the old Beaupre farm in a section called the “widow’s dower.” In 2006, there were 4,900 employees and a 700-member medical staff. Work on the hospital began immediately following the groundbreaking ceremony on March 8, 1948, the feast of St. John of God (who in 1540 established a house to harbor poor and sick persons). Four-and-a-half year old Brenda Kay Earle was the hospital’s first patient on May 15, 1952. Also in that year, Randall John Stewart was the first baby born there.

The hospital’s Emergency Room treated 8,287 patients during 1956, its first year. By 2001, the Emergency Center staff was treated more than 76,400 patients as the major level-two emergency center for the eastside community.

The Men’s Guild began in 1948 and is believed to have been the first men’s hospital fund raising group in the United States.. It has 750 members that support its philanthropic efforts, highlighted by the Annual Guild Dinner.

Both the Sisters of St.Joseph and the Men’s Guild have worked together over the years to further the goals of the hospital system.

Child Heath Care
Under the direction of Ali Rabbani, MD, chief of Pediatrics, St. John Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) opened in 1970. St. John is also a regional referral center for high-risk pregnancies. Eight hundred fifty-five births took place in the first delivery rooms back in 1952 versus the 3,893 babies born in 2001 at the St. John Birthing center. The facility is able to serve 31 mothers, infants and families for labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum care.

The number of beds reached today’s total of 607 in 1973. That year, St. John’s medical education program affiliated with Wayne State University, opened new cooperative teaching arrangements. Almost one-third of the St. John medical staff held faculty appointments at the university. The hospital educates new doctors in Family Practice, General Surgery, Internal Medicine,OB/GYN, Pathology, Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine for physicians’ post-medical school training, plus residency in Pharmacy Practices for post-degree students. In addition, St. John serves as a practical training site for students of Nursing, Pharmacy, and Physical and Occupational Therapy, among others.

Surgery
The first heart by-pass surgery at the hospital was performed by Philip J. Feringa, MD, who along with his team planned and studied for more than a year under leading heart surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic. St. John offers most diagnostic, surgical and non-surgical cardiac treatment available. The first laparoscopic gallbladder removal procedure in Michigan took place in 1989 at St. John. A laparoscope is a miniature camera that projects pictures from inside the patient’s body to a video monitor. This tool requires only a very small surgical incision for procedures such as hernia repair, appendectomies, splenectomies, adrenal gland removal, colon resections, lumbar fusion and removal of spleen and liver cysts. The Transplant Specialty Center opened in 1990. In 1992, the first pancreas transplant took place. Then in 1993, the first kidney removal using a laparoscope was done. Before the end of 2000, the Transplant Specialty Center performed its 500th organ transplant.

Cancer Care
The Oncology Department began in 1968 and is now located in the recently opened Van Elslander Cancer Center (VECC) on the hospital’s campus. The 69,000 square-foot facility focuses on offering holistic treatment and conventional cancer therapies.

Affiliated with the University of Michigan Cancer Center Network, the VECC, along with the U of M and other St. John Health System hospitals treats more than 14,000 new cancer cases every year