St. Joseph has provided compassionate care for 135 years, today they continue to innovate
You might be shocked to learn that St. Joseph Medical Center has been providing medical care to Houstonians for 135 years. Scott Flowers, Interim President at St. Joseph, discusses their unique history, its impact on Houston, and how the medical center continues to innovate to this day.
St. Joseph Medical Center opens its doors in 1887
It would be far too easy to assume the first hospital in Houston closed a long time ago or transformed into a separate entity, but that isn’t the case. To this day, St. Joseph is still recognized as the first hospital in Houston, having opened its doors in the city’s early days – 1887 to be exact.
The Six Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word originally founded the infirmary, which grew into a full-fledged medical institution that housed the nation’s first private maternity hospital.
As early as 1943, St. Joseph established Houston’s first premature nursery. This was the first of many leaps in healthcare, but what is most remarkable is how their current Women’s Center delivers over 300 babies a month at the hospital.
“There is a significant history at this hospital of serving the Houston community,” Interim President Scott Flowers acknowledges. “One of the most staggering statistics around St. Joseph is that historically over onethird of the Houston-born population was born at St. Joseph.”
One reason St. Joseph will always have a place in Flowers’ heart is that his two oldest sons, now teenagers, were both born at this hospital, 16 years and 17 years ago. Despite the fact was Flowers working for another hospital at the time, his wife’s OB wanted the delivery to take place at
St. Joseph, and they didn’t regret the decision to go along with it.
“I’ve been at St. Joseph now for two
Pioneers in the medical field
In addition to being the first hospital in Houston, St. Joseph was also the city’s first destination for maternity and emergency care. It was a pediatrician at the hospital by the name of Allan Penny Bloxsom, MD who developed the Bloxsom Air Lock – more commonly known as the “incubator” – for premature babies. St. Joseph was the first hospital to use an incubator unit and was subsequently featured in Newsweek magazine.
An early champion of racial equality, St. Joseph Medical Center was one of the first hospitals in the country that enabled AfricanAmerican physicians to practice medicine. This began when Dr. Herman Barnett became the first black graduate from the University of Texas Medical Branch. In 1968,
Dr. Barnett completed his second residency in anesthesia at St. Joseph
Hospital and went on to join their medical staff.
Here is a quick timeline of a few more key St. Joseph breakthroughs within the medical industry:
Always continuing to innovate
As part of Steward Healthcare, St. Joseph is currently in the midst of a 92-million-dollar renovation, much of which centers around technology. The hospital has just opened two new cardiac catheterization labs, doubled the size of their mammography department with 3D technology, and built out a new “Psych Safe Space” to provide a safe level of care for patients in the ER.
“St. Joseph has such a storied history, but our future is even brighter than our past,” Scott Flowers states. “Those additions and upgrades are investments in technology on our campus to prepare for years to come. We’re Houston’s only downtown hospital, so for us to continue to serve this area is critical for the city.”
As a Level III Trauma Center, their staff treats a substantial number of patients who come to St. Joseph for a variety of needs, including everything from cardiac care and neurosurgery to GI care and behavioral health. The hospital takes great pride in offering their Level
III NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), which is one of the highest levels of care for newborns in the world. If there are any complications, St. Joseph provides this service for the mom and baby.
“We are focused on the patient experience,” Flowers says. “Operational efficiency in an organization combined with a great culture can impact and drive results in a great way. Using tools to help improve and monitor all of those components help us run and compete in this worldclass healthcare market.”
With the upper echelon of healthcare institutions being firmly rooted in Houston, there’s plenty of proof that St. Joseph ranks up there at the top of that list.
“We monitor where EMS brings patients, and our hospital receives the second most ambulance transports of any hospital in Houston,” Flowers points out. “It says we care about people, and they can count on us to take timely care of patients in Houston.”
Giving back to the community
Over the years, the employees at St. Joseph have been extremely gracious with their time in volunteering for several community activities, including working with The Homeless Depot to help care for Houston’s homeless population. The leadership at St. Joseph has also formed a partnership to offer free sports physicals and electrocardiograms (EKGs) to students throughout Houston.
Additionally, St. Joseph employees regularly participate in numerous supply drives throughout the year, including ones that gather food supplies for the Houston Food Bank, as well as school supplies for various organizations in Houston, such as BEAR. St. Joseph is also active in
Toys for Tots-Houston to help out underprivileged children and collects sanitary supplies and clothing for the homeless community too.
It would be wrong to not give a shoutout to their multitude of staff members who have volunteered to administer free COVID-19 vaccines to low-income communities in Houston as well.
Schedule your next visit at St. Joseph Medical Center
There is an entire myriad of reasons why people choose a particular hospital. According to St. Joseph, the most important reason is security in knowing they will receive nothing but state-of-the-art compassionate healthcare.
“That extends from the medical staff to the nursing staff to the housekeepers,” Flowers states. “Every member of our team at St. Joseph takes personal care of the people who come in seeking healthcare.”
At the end of the day, it’s easy to see why St. Joseph Medical Center has remained so integral to the city of Houston for over 135 years and counting.
If you’re looking for an allencompassing hospital to serve you and your family in the Houston area, count on the one organization that originally made phenomenal healthcare available for Houstonians. To get started with booking an appointment, visit sjmctx.org.