Healing body, mind, and spirit: The history of the St. Francis Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The history of the St. Francis Hospital of Pittsburgh emphasizes the institutional response to changes in the American population, medical technology and the nature of disease, and also covers aspects of hospital history heretofore overlooked. This study analyzes the nineteenth century urban hospital as well as the time span leading into the second half of the twentieth century, thus illuminating longer periods than in previous studies. St. Francis was somewhat unique in that Pittsburgh had no municipal hospital, and St. Francis served that role with expanded admission policies, unlike other contemporary institutions. The study analyzes the hospital's role within the community, focusing on the wider role played outside of the institutional setting. More importantly, however, this study focuses on the role of religious orders in hospital development, calling into question the standard model of hospital development. The Catholic sisters' ongoing concern for the indigent created tensions between the administration, medical profession, their own medical goals and government policy. The Sisters of St. Francis maintained authority within their institution, never relinquishing control to either the board of managers or physicians. Medical professionalization and economics have not necessarily been the sole determining factors in the direction of a hospital's growth, but the values of a Catholic order also were crucial. Although St. Francis is not necessarily typical of all Catholic Hospitals, it adds to the literature on the role of women religious in the evolution of health care and points out that generalizations made regarding hospital development should be questioned.;St. Francis is unique in its incorporation of a psychiatric department within the general hospital. This study focuses on the role of a religious order in mental health care, illuminating the effect of changing state and federal mental health policies on hospital practice and the conflict which resulted between hospital administration, community leaders and the medical profession. In addition, the study examines changes in medical treatment for mental illness and substance abuse. St. Francis provided treatment for drug and alcohol addiction early in its history and the dissertation covers the early twentieth century, a period of neglect in the mental health historiography.