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History |
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OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center is a member of OSF HealthCare, an affiliate corporation of The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. From 2002 to 2005, consumers in Winnebago, Boone and Ogle counties selected OSF Saint Anthony as their preferred hospital in a survey conducted by National Research Corporation. OSF Saint Anthony currently has more than 2,000 employees, more than 200 active and associate medical staff and more than 200 physicians with courtesy admitting privileges. Everyone who is part of the OSF Saint Anthony family is dedicated to provide healthcare with love, compassion and respect. Those who work at OSF Saint Anthony are the best people in healthcare in the region because of their commitment to serving those in need.
In 1981, OSF Saint Anthony established the Lifeline Emergency Helicopter Service, the first hospital-based emergency helicopter service in the region and one of the first 20 established in the United States. Lifeline is a vital service, assisting emergency personnel in the region with transporting patients from accident scenes and serving smaller community hospitals with transfers to tertiary centers. In 2005, Lifeline logged 654 transports.
Recent medical firsts at OSF Saint Anthony include artificial spine disc replacement; MicroMaze cardiac surgery; transmyocardial laser revascularization (TMR); intraoperative cerebral angiograms; MammoSite breast cancer treatment; balloon kyphoplasty to treat spinal fractures; 3-dimensional CT scans that provide fast diagnosis of cardiovascular and neurological diseases; and new technology that improves total knee replacement surgery.
In January 2005, OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center joined the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 100,000 Lives Campaign, the first-ever national campaign to save 100,000 lives by implementing proven healthcare improvement techniques. The campaign has been endorsed by such distinguished healthcare organizations as the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
For more than 100 years we have remained true to the Mission of the Sisters: "In the Spirit of Christ and the example of Francis of Assisi, the Mission of OSF HealthCare is to serve persons with the greatest care and love in a community that celebrates life." |
In 1899, six
Sisters of The Third Order of Saint Francis arrived in Rockford
with little more than their deep faith and a desire to serve.
Called to the growing city by community leaders to start a hospital,
the Sisters were aided by real estate agent William Crotty, who
raised a public subscription of $12,000 to purchase the Schmauss
home at the corner of East State and Summit streets. Crotty persuaded
local merchants and civic leaders to donate furniture and supplies
for the new hospital. The hospital officially opened its doors
August 18, 1899.
It quickly
grew with the first of many expansions occurring in 1902. To
help meet the medical needs of the community,
the Sisters
opened the 
Today, OSF
Saint Anthony is a 254-bed tertiary care facility on a 100-acre
campus on the east side of Rockford. Patients
from
a
10-county area come to us for services including the Level
I Trauma Center, Regional Heart Institute, Illinois Neurosciences
Institute,
Center for Cancer Care, the OSF Diabetes Center, Center for
Sports
Medicine and Health Fitness and leading edge orthopedic services.
OSF Saint
Anthony also reaches out to serve those who cannot visit our
campus.
Our off-campus services include the Center
for Home
Care, which serves people in nine northern Illinois counties.
The OSF Saint Anthony Parish Nurse program brings counsel,
health education
and consultation to medically underserved residents in
the Rockford and Belvidere communities. Three Parish
Nurses based
at seven
churches of various denominations offer a variety of
free services to people
who live in underserved areas.
Innovative
firsts for the Rockford area performed by the physicians affiliated
with OSF Saint Anthony
Medical
Center
include open-heart
and beating heart bypass surgeries, innovative valve-replacement
cardiac surgery, implantable cardiac defibrillators,
total hip replacement surgeries, brachytherapy radiation
therapy
for prostate
and lung cancer, implantable pain-relief devices,
and the use of Integra artificial skin for burn patients.
In December
2004, OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center became the first medical
center in Rockford and
the 90th in
the nation
to achieve
accreditation as a Chest Pain Center. This elite,
three-year accreditation is given by the Society
of Chest Pain
Centers. Accreditation is
earned by medical centers with emergency departments
that are able to provide a full-spectrum of emergency
cardiac
care,
rapid diagnosis
and fast track treatment. 
In May 2005,
OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center became the first
medical center in Rockford
to earn the
prestigious Magnet designation.
Magnet status is the highest recognition
for nursing excellence
available in the United States. Magnet designation
is awarded by the American Nurses Credentialing
Center (ANCC),
a subsidiary
of
the American Nurses Association. Of more
than 6,400 hospitals in the United States, fewer
than 150
elite medical centers
have earned
Magnet status.