Gilbert, Arizona

CHAPTER X

Mercy Gilbert Medical Center A History of Caring

Mercy Gilbert Medical Center is proud of its place in Gilbert history as the town’s first full service, acute-care hospital.While the hospital’s history is relatively short—its doors opened on June 5, 2006—the people who brought the hospital to Gilbert have a long and rich history of caring for Arizonans. It was the Sisters of Mercy, the order of Catholic sisters who spon sor Mercy Gilbert, who in 1895 brought Arizona its first hospital—St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.And it was Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), the system of forty three hospitals that operates St. Joseph’s and Chandler Regional Hospital, that recognized the need for healthcare services in the rapidly grow ing southeast Valley—especially in Gilbert, which was widely known as the fastest-growing town in America. The Mercy Gilbert name honors the Sisters of Mercy, the hospital’s sponsoring congregation. The Sisters of Mercy was founded in the early 1800s in Ireland by Sister Catherine McAuley, who had a special love for the virtue of mercy. The Sisters’ philosophy is based on the Judeo-Christian ethics of faith and love and is

k Mercy Gilbert Medical Center looking east expressed in service, compassion, and the recog nition of each person’s basic human right to be treated with dignity and respect. The Sisters of Mercy first came to the Valley in 1892 to build Sacred Heart School in Phoenix. It wasn’t long before they took up another cause: to care for the tuberculosis sufferers who often died alone.The Sisters were so moved by the sick that in 1895 they opened Arizona’s first hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital, now home to the renowned Barrow Neurological Institute and one of the state’s leading teaching hospitals.

k Aerial view of Medical Center under construction

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