08/19/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/19/2024 08:07
OKLAHOMA CITY - Longtime nurse Madalene Smith remembers Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City's move from its "little bitty" downtown Oklahoma City location to a state-of-the-art hospital on Memorial Road in the middle of a cow pasture in August 1974 - 50 years ago this week.
"There were no paved roads, and it would be nothing to run into a cow when you were out there," said Smith, 91, of Del City. "It was out in the country. When we moved out there, we thought, 'what on Earth were they thinking?'"
But, as the saying goes, if you build it, they will come.
Fast-forward 10 years to a chilly Tuesday in January 1984 when Bennett Geister was born at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City, then called Mercy Health Center. This past April, Geister came full circle, becoming president of the hospital where he and his two brothers were born.
As Geister looks toward the future in his new role, he also understands the importance of reflecting on the hospital's 50-year legacy, made possible by the pioneering spirit of the Sisters of Mercy.
From a cow pasture to a bustling urban area, Oklahoma City has grown around Mercy in the last 50 years.
In July 1947, the Sisters of Mercy purchased Oklahoma City General Hospital and embarked on a new ministry of health care in Oklahoma.
By the 1960s, Sister Mary Coletta Massoth and the Sisters of Mercy began investigating the creation of a much larger hospital based on projected growth in Oklahoma City.
The Sisters chose the 40-acre property on Memorial Road in northwest Oklahoma City because the area was expected to grow by more than 50%, and the much larger property would allow for future hospital expansion.
"Mercy's location on the city's future 'outer loop' will soon make it one of the more easily accessible hospitals," declared a Mercy supplement in The Oklahoman published Aug. 18, 1974. "Mercy will be an oasis in the middle of residential development, motels, shopping centers and offices."
That prediction came true.
"Sister Coletta was one of the most outstanding women I've known," said Smith, a beloved labor and delivery nurse who worked for Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City for 62 years before retiring in 2020. "She had a dream. She foresaw the future and she knew what to do to bring us up to the standards all over the hospital. She had a hard job at that time and did it well."
Since the hospital opened its doors 50 years ago, the surrounding area has transformed from farm prairie into a fast-growing retail and health care corridor. Mercy has grown from the original 225 patient beds in 1974 to nearly 400 beds and multiple campuses today.
The team at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City saw nearly 64,000 patients in the emergency room, cared for more than 330,000 patients through clinic visits and delivered nearly 4,000 babies over the last year. That was a far cry from about 300 to 400 babies a year in the previous hospital in the 1960s, recalled Smith.
Even before moving to the new building, Mercy's obstetrics program was ahead of its time. In the 1960s, Smith recalls the introduction of fetal monitors and an intravenous (IV) drip with medicine to help slow premature labor.
Moving to the new building in the 1970s brought even more advancements.
"The one thing I remember the most is the system we had to adjust to," Smith recalled. "It was a whole different system and very modern. We used to have to walk downstairs to get medications from the pharmacy in the old building. It was all by machine at the new location."
When the hospital opened in 1974, it featured:
The hospital has seen big advancements in treatment and care in the half-century since it opened on Memorial Road. Here are a few highlights throughout the years:
Click here to learn about Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City's services, history and achievements.
Geister, president of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City Communities, is excited for the next 50 years.
"My hope for the future is for Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City to continue being a blessing to not only our community in Oklahoma City but to the entire state of Oklahoma," Geister said. "We want to care for everyone who needs us in the region and carry on the legacy of those who came before us."
That legacy of the Sisters of Mercy is something Smith carried with her throughout her nursing career. She hopes the Mercy spirit of service lives on over the next 50 years and beyond.
"I hope they carry on what Mercy's all about - the 'Mercy Way,'" said Smith. The Mercy Way is the idea that you care for everyone equitably with dignity. "It's about caring for everyone, giving everything you've got and doing it right."
Mercy, one of the 20 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized care and one of the nation's largest and highest performing Accountable Care Organizations in quality and cost. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including more than 50 acute care and specialty (heart, children's, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 900 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 4,500 physicians and advanced practitioners and 50,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In fiscal year 2023 alone, Mercy provided more than half a billion dollars of free care and other community benefits, including traditional charity care and unreimbursed Medicaid.