Medical facilities in Tulsa

Earliest hospitals

In 1900, a smallpox epidemic struck Tulsa. Surgeon Dr. Fred S. Clinton and four Tulsa businessmen (J. H. McBirney, Sam H. McBirney, Vic Pranter and Jack Dietz) set up a hospital for contagious patients in a six room cottage near Archer Avenue and Greenwood Street. Dr. Clinton was the acknowledged leader, while the other four each invested fifty dollars to equip the facility and served as trustees. After the epidemic had passed, the facility was used for other types of patients. The facility closed after only one year of operation, apparently without even receiving a formal name.

After closure of the Archer Avenue facility, Dr. Clinton recognized the need to establish a real hospital for the rapidly growing city. He called town meetings and gave speeches for five years. In 1906, he and several other doctors organized and incorporated the Tulsa Hospital Association. He was elected president, Dr. C. L. Reeder was Secretary and Dr. C. Z. Wiley was Treasurer. The association leased a two and one-half story residence on North Cheyenne, where it opened the Tulsa Hospital. In December 1906, the hospital moved to a ten-room building at the corner of West 5th Street and Lawton Avenue. The hospital had 40 beds, a private ambulance, long-distance telephone service and was located on a street car line. The first nursing school was established at the Tulsa Hospital. It was directed by Mrs. Henrietta Ziegler. The first class of four nurses graduated in 1910. Dr. Clinton remained as president until 1915, when control was sold to other interests. This hospital closed after World War I.

Oklahoma Hospital

In 1915, Dr. Clinton headed a new group of professional and civic leaders in establishing the Oklahoma Hospital at West 9th Street and Jackson Avenue. This was a new brick building with a capacity of 50 patients and having a three-room surgery. The hospital did not open until 1916, because World War I interrupted the supply of many critical materials. Mrs. Henrietta Ziegler followed Dr. Clinton from the Tulsa Hospital and created a new nursing school at Oklahoma Hospital. The hospital declined after the construction of St. Johns Hospital in the 1920s. It was eventually converted and converted to a facility for treating nervous and mental disorders. In 1943, it was purchased by a group of osteopathic physicians and became the 200-bed Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital.

The hospital became a non-profit and was renamed Tulsa Regional Medical Center. It was sold to Columbia/HCA, a for-profit company from Nashville, Tennessee in 1996, which sold it to Hillcrest Medical Center in 1999. It became part of the Oklahoma State University Medical Center in 2006.

Morningside/Hillcrest complex

Morningside Hospital was created in 1918 because of an influenza epidemic. This hospital began in a brick building at 512 North Boulder Avenue. After the epidemic had subsided, additional money was raised and used to remodel and better equip the hospital. It soon became one of the city’s leading institutions, attracting many younger physicians to its medical staff. An addition built in 1923-4, bringing the capacity to 80 beds. By 1925, Morningside was owned by Mr. and Mrs. William J. McNulty, who decided to build a new complex at 16th and Utica (the present site), which opened in February 1928.(Editor's Note: the hospital site was actually at 12th and Utica.)

The Great Depression caused the complex to become financially strapped. The business was reorganized as a community hospital in 1939, and renamed Hillcrest Hospital. It hired Bryce Twitty as the new Administrator.

In 2012 Hillcrest hospital has 532 beds. It is owned by Ardent Health Services.

St. John Medical Center

A Roman Catholic order, Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, intending to build a hospital, acquired a tract of land in 1919 at 21st Street and Utica Avenue. Fund raising drives stated almost immediately. The groundbreaking ceremony occurred in February 1920 and featured General John J. Pershing. The initial funds proved inadequate and construction stopped. Another fundraising drive was held in February 1921 and work resumed in 1922. Now named St. John Medical Center, it admitted its first patients in 1924, while the facility was only partially complete. Another fundraising drive was needed to complete the facility in 1926.

Despite its financially troubled beginning, St. John not only survived, but grew to become the largest hospital in Tulsa. St. John Medical Center, located in an 11-story midtown center, employs nearly 700 doctors. It continues to operate until the present. A major expansion in 1957 included two more wings, a parking garage, a physical services building and a new residence for members of the order in charge of the complex. A more recent building program will replace all the pre-1945 facilities. A 10-story tower will serve most of the patient, visitor and staff personnel needs.

Children's Medical Center

The Junior League of Tulsa established a convalescent home for crippled children in 1926 in a downtown building at 5th Street and Cincinnati Avenue. In 1928, the home moved to a large cottage at 1448 South Lewis and was renamed the Junior League Convalescent Center. The facility emphasized treatment of convalescing children, especially polio victims. In 1953, the name was changed to Children's Medical Center. In 1962, the center consolidated the functions of several agencies, including: the Tulsa Child Guidance Clinic, Sunnyside School, Child Study Clinic, Vocational Training Center. It continues to operate in the 21st Century.

Doctors' Hospital

Doctors' Hospital was founded in 1964 by a group of family practice doctors who were frustrated by a medical system that required them to turn thei patients over to specialists when the patients needed to be treated at a hospital. In 1964, construction of Doctors' Hospital began at 2323 South Harvard Avenue. The non-profit hospital began operation August 29, 1966. The original hospital has been sold and is now named Columbia Doctors' Hospital.

St. Francis Health System

The Saint Francis Health System, founded by Tulsa businessman William K. Warren, Sr. owns several hospitals with a central location at Saint Francis Hospital in the southern part of the city. The facility contains 700 doctors and 918 beds, and with more than 7,000 employees, the network is the second largest healthcare employer in the state. The health system also operates a heart hospital, which was named by General Electric in 2004 one of the most advanced heart hospitals in the nation.

In 2010, the system was the third-largest employer in Tulsa. having 7,400 employees and an annual budget of $2.1 billion.

Other hospitals

Other networks, such as Hillcrest Health System, operate a number of facilities in varying sizes.

Beginning in 2007, the city elected to renew a five-year contract with EMSA for ambulance service after a period of consideration to switch to the Tulsa Fire Department for providing such services.

The Physicians and Surgeons Hospital opened in 1910 at Carson Avenue and 13th Street. It was founded by Dr. G.H. Butler, Dr. S.D. Hawley, Dr. W.Q. Conway and Dr. R.S. Wagner. It continued until the 1930s before closing.

Dr. Wade Sisler opened a now defunctHospital for Bone and Joint Diseases in 1929 at 807 South Elgin Avenue.

Flower Hospital occupied the old Morningside building at 512 North Boulder from 1925 to 1941.