SSM St. Mary's celebrates its 90th anniversary

On November 16, 1872, five German nuns arrived in St. Louis in search of religious freedom and to do God's work of caring for the sick. When they arrived, they had just $5 among them, but they carried the faith and compassion that ultimately would become SSM Health Care.

It would be just over 50 years later, June 10, 1924, that the Sisters of St. Mary opened the most modern hospital of its time on Clayton Road in Richmond Heights, Missouri – St. Mary’s Hospital. The spot was specifically chosen by the sisters because it was the highest point in the city. The sisters considered it a “crown” for the city for all in need.

Charging only $5 a day per patient and having less than 70 doctors on staff, the 1924 Annual Report showed 2,000 patients who were treated at the hospital, 1,247 who were charity cases. No person, regardless of their ability to pay, was turned away from St. Mary’s Hospital. They were simply identified as “Our Dear Lord’s” and cared for the same as everyone else.

Before the hospital opened, the sisters created an agreement with St. Louis University to be an affiliate hospital of the university and be the university’s major teaching hospital for the departments of Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics. The partnership with St. Louis University continues today and SSM St. Mary’s Health Center is the headquarters for the St. Louis University School of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and its Family Practice residency program.

Today, through the great partnerships with St. Louis University, SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center and the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute, SSM St. Mary’s offers most comprehensive high-risk pregnancy care in St. Louis. 

Over the past 90 years, SSM St. Mary’s has grown into a 525-bed full-service health center with more than 800 physicians on staff, and employing more than 2,100 people. Every year, St. Mary’s Health Center delivers, on average, over 3,000 babies and close to 50,000 patients visit our Emergency Department.

SSM St. Mary’s has been around for 90 years because of its ability to adapt and focus on the needs of the community. Plans are being finalized for a new women’s pavilion at St. Mary’s Health Center. Focused on improving all aspects of a woman’s well-being, the Rosetta Boyce Kyles Women’s Pavilion will redefine women’s health. Women's health historically has progressed from a focus on the conditions related to the female reproductive tract to now include the diverse set of conditions that affect women differentially, such as: diabetes, obesity, depression, heart disease, osteoporosis, breast disease, cancer and dermatologic conditions. The women's pavilion will centralize and enhance those areas of clinical care, provide health education and resources for women as they care for themselves and their families.

The new pavilion, located on the fifth and sixth floors of SSM St. Mary’s, will build upon the health center’s tradition of serving a full spectrum of women’s health care needs; from adolescence through post-menopause clinical care with a focus on women's health.