The Olivetan Benedictine Sisters founded St. Bernards Hospital in 1900.
In March, The American College of Surgeons, Commission on Cancer awarded the Ben E. Owens Cancer Treatment Center at St. Bernards the highest approval given, a full three year approval for their commitment to maintaining the Cancer program.
Ground is broken in May for Outpatient Surgery Center as a joint venture between St. Bernards and a number of area physicians.
In May, an announcement was made to purchase a P.E.T. Scanner. In December, construction was completed and the GE PET Advance NXI was installed and being tested.
Ground was broken in October for a new Sports Medicine Clinic to be built on the campus of Arkansas State University. The clinic will also include a family practice clinic operated by First Care and will house the student health center for the University.
The Senior Services division explodes with several programs.
A partnership with UAMS, the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging and AHEC-Northeast, we opened a Center On Aging-Northeast to provide resources to Senior Adults including the services of a new Senior Health Clinic as we welcomed, for the first time, a Geriatrician to Jonesboro.
St. Bernards Village opened an expansion in the assisted living quarters of the facility and broke ground for another expansion to the congregate living area.
Began operation of 8 Senior Life Centers in Craighead and Poinsett Counties, serving hot meals on a daily basis and providing activities for area residents.
Another year of "firsts" for St. Bernards....The Chest Pain Center is opened in the Emergency department, Brachytherapy is offered as a treatment for heart disease, and the R2 Image checker is introduced to the region for breast cancer detection. The Cancer Treatment Center celebrates 10 years of service and St. Bernards Village plans expansion to meet the growing needs of assisted living in the community.
St. Bernards Dayplace, a center that provides daylong care for senior adults, opens in January. On July 5, St. Bernards celebrates a century of serving by turning 100 years old. On August 12-13, over 3,800 people were served through Mission: Serve. At that time, St. Bernards, the Arkansas Army National Guard and the Jonesboro community united to provide over a quarter of a million dollars worth of free medical services to all participants.
The Heartcare Center, a 70,000 square foot facility is opened and houses heart services along with nuclear medicine in one convenient location. Late that summer, a Lightspeed CT Scanner is also added to speed the diagnosis process which is especially helpful in trauma situations.
St. Bernards Village, a unique retirement community which opened in October, enables residents to lead full and active lives. Scintimammography becomes available in the Department of Nuclear Medicine where an IV injection is used to detect breast cancer. St. Bernards introduces a Mobile Mammography Unit which will travel to 23 counties offering mammograms to groups of women in industry and other locations.
St. Bernards acquires St. Bernards Behavioral Health, formerly known as Greenleaf. This enables the offering of behavioral healthcare. A new Dialysis and Cardiac Rehab is opened in April. Construction begins on the Heartcare Center. The addition of cutting-edge mammography and ultrasound equipment to the Women's Diagnostic Center in October allows for a higher level of confidence in detecting breast lesions and may reduce the number of breast biopsies by 40 percent.
A new Magnetic Resonance Imaging System(MRI) came on line in January. The new system is nearly 10 times faster than the old one, and reduces the waiting period for MRI testing to one day. The addition of a new HiSpeed Computed Tomography System(CT/i) gives St. Bernards the most advanced CT diagnostic capabilities in Northeast Arkansas. The ground breaking on the St. Bernards Retirement Village takes place in October. The first phase of the village is to be completed in 1998.
St. Bernards Healthcare Associated Regional Providers(SHARP) is established as the first operational Physician-Hospital Organization(PHO) in the state. Transitional Care Facility is opened.
Center for Pain Management is opened and Pre-Admission Testing begins.
The Diagnostic & Treatment Center is completed, along with a multi-level parking deck. The Center includes the Ben E. Owens Cancer Treatment Center(including a Linear Accelerator), the Women's Diagnostic Center, Hemodialysis, Area Health Education Center(AHEC) Northeast and the Gastroenterology Laboratory.
Balloon Angioplasty is offered. A helicopter pad and the Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI) unit building is completed.
The Sleep Disorder Center is opened.
A Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory is added.
The North Wing is completed, incorporating Pediatrics and Medical-Surgical beds, bringing total capacity to 325.
A three-floor expansion of the East Wing brings bed capacity to 274. Intensive Coronary Care addition is also completed that year, and services added later include Cobalt Therapy(1976), CT Head Scan(1979), and Nuclear Cardiology(1980).
The North Wing and Laundry Building are completed, and a Pediatrics Department is added. Bed capacity is now 207.
Construction of the East Wing is dedicated, bringing total bed capacity to 150.
The hospital receives accreditation of its school for registered nurses. A year later, the hospital is approved by the American College of Surgeons.
The first X-ray Machine is installed.
The first patient is admitted to a six-room house on East Matthews Avenue.