Mercy Milestones - Student Version
Helping sick people for more than 100 years
1891
In February 1891, the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother build a hospital in Oshkosh. They name the hospital "St. Mary’s."
1892
People do not want to use the hospital. The nuns beg for money. Soon people learn it is a good hospital, and so many people come to the hospital that the nuns cannot fit them all.
1894
Ground is broken for the new St. Mary’s Hospital. The building will fit 25 to 35 patients.
1903
An addition and new chapel are built on to the hospital. The hospital will now fit 85 patients.
1917
The nuns buy Lakeside Hospital from Dr. M.E. Corbett. They give it a new name: Mercy Hospital.
1922
Ground is broken for an addition to Mercy Hospital. It adds a north wing, chapel, convent, new powerhouse and laundry.
1931
A five-story nursing school is built. Students can live at the school.
1939
Mercy Hospital is given an award. It is called a class "A" hospital by the American College of Surgeons and the American Medical Association.
1942
Red Cross volunteers begin to work at Mercy Hospital.
1956
Mercy’s School of Nursing is given an award from the National Nursing Accrediting Program.
1957
The hospital grows again. Three new parts of the building add operating rooms, patient rooms and offices.
1962
Mercy Hospital adds a nuclear medicine lab.
1968
Mercy Hospital and the Marion Home come together to form Mercy Medical Center.
1971
Mercy Medical Center Foundation is started.
1973
A new surgery intensive care unit opens at Mercy Medical Center.
1978
The Hospice Program begins, and a room is added to the hospital where babies can be born.
1981
Mercy Medical Center adds a new CT scanner.
1983
The hospital gets new tools for eye surgery.
1984
The hospital starts helping people with drug and alcohol problems and heart problems.
1985
Mercy Medical Center becomes the first hospital in the state to start a program for helping women check for breast cancer.
1988
Mercy Medical Center gets more computer tools, called MRI.
1991 – Mercy celebrates 100 years of helping people.
Mercy Medical Center starts doing open-heart surgery. Later in the year, they start building the Mercy-Oakwood Medical Center.
1993
Mercy-Oakwood Medical Center is done. It has doctors' offices to help people with special health problems.
1995
Mercy Medical Center and St. Elizabeth Hospital join to form Affinity Health System.
1997
The nuns start building a new hospital.
2000
The new hospital opens.
