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Franciscan Skemp Healthcare A History RESEARCHING & WRITING Susan T. Hessel EDITING & COORDINATING Ruth E. Purcell Franciscan Skemp Mayo Health System © 2002 Franciscan Skemp Healthcare, Mayo Health System All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise — without prior written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by Franciscan Skemp Healthcare 700 West Avenue South La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601 608-785-0940 ISBN 0-615-12068-7 Printed in the United States. This hook is dedicated to three families of pioneers in healing: The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration • The Skemps The Mayos For the hard work and perseverance that made Franciscan Skemp Healthcare possible Contents I: Introduction 1 II: The Dedication of the FSPA 13 III: Education 41 IV: The Clinics 77 V: Creation of St. Francis Health Corporation and Franciscan Health System 103 VI: Developing the Rural System 135 VII: The Search for a Partner 157 VIII: Blending the Organizations 171 IX: The Mission: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 183 Index 223 Preface The story you are about to read is truly extraordinary. The history outlined in this book demonstrates how the best qualities in human beings — strength, courage, compassion and intelligence — propelled three organizations to go beyond their dreams and achieve what was once unimaginable. It tells of how individuals toiled and sacrificed for the good of the people around them. It's the story of. • a group of young German women who came to this country with no money or medical skills and built a hospital; • a local medical family who selflessly supported one another, their community and their country; • two rural doctors who built a world-renowned medical clinic. and how their determined, undaunting human spirit in the pursuit of the common good brought these three pillars of strength together to form the organization known today as Franciscan Skemp Healthcare. The purpose of this book is to acknowledge the tireless contributions of many people and to demonstrate how Franciscan Skemp Healthcare became the whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. VII iiP* iBfe; :li St. Francis operating room circa 1900 I: Introduction •^ New Year's Eve, 1883 clock prayer that began on August 1,1878, Three men among many working on the and continues to this day. steamships traveling the Mississippi River In the waning years of the 19th century, near La Crosse,Wis., fell sick and needed doctors could recognize their patients' dis­ medical care. The new St. Francis Hospital in eases and injuries, but there was little they La Crosse was not expected to open until the could do. There were no antibiotics to treat next day, but there was a need and the the most prevailing causes of death in those Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration days — infectious diseases such as tuber­ (FSPA), who built and were to operate the culosis, smallpox, diphtheria, plus all of the new hospital, naturally responded to the chal­ childhood diseases such as measles, mumps lenge and opened a day early just for them. and rubella. With so much infectious dis­ The FSPA, in La Crosse since 1871, were ease, it was little wonder that the life like many religious groups in the 19th cen­ expectancy for a person born in the mid- tury that took on the need for health care in 1880s was 44 years. a medical world that was primitive at best. In the 19th century, every tool a doctor Many Sisters then had little or no formal used to diagnose and treat disease could fit education in nursing, but embraced their inside the black bag he carried with him tasks with the same devotion they had for when he called on patients. With little tech­ their religious life. Their name comes from nology, a doctor used his — and it nearly the commitment and dedication exemplified always was "his" — senses to identify what by their perpetual adoration, round-the- was going on inside the body. In medical examinations, hearing, sight, touch and smell The riverfront from Pettibone Park, La Crosse, Wis. were most critical. The stethoscope was a 3 ste^Pii llliii very powerful advance, indeed, when invent­ ed in the early 1880s byTheophile Laennec to listen to the heart and other organs. Listening played a critical role in an even more important way. Doctors listened intent­ ly to the history of the medical problems that patients placed before them, piecing together a diagnosis from the words used and from the insight they gained from their experience as practitioners. In 1895,Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen gave doctors the first opportunity to see inside the body without surgery. Before X-rays, a doctor could learn about internal organs only through lectures, primitive texts or sometimes-clandestine exploration of cadav­ ers. These explorations were so important that La Crosse doctors started their own medical school in 1864. The short-lived La Crosse Medical College contained only a dissecting room, an indication of the desire of local doctors to perform dissections in order to gain more knowledge. At any rate, the record shows that only one lecture was held and no students were ever enrolled in the medical school. St. Francis Pharmacy circa 1898 In 1883, La Crosse doctors were generalists, doing whatever they could with whomever walked in their door. The La Crosse City Directory in 1884 listed 27 physicians, including Frank "White Beaver" Powell, M.D., the infamous doctor who once challenged the town's other 26 physicians to a duel. He promised to cure "whatever ails you" with his own line of patented medi­ cines. Although criticized by other doctors, he was a very popular mayor of La Crosse from 1885 to 1887 and from 1893 to 1897. Until St. Francis opened, patients in La Crosse were cared for in private homes or in one of the city's 33 hotels, where condi­ tions were not exactly sterile. People in the 19th century didn't understand or accept the concept of microbes causing diseases. Physicians, as dedicated to their patients then as they are today, had much less training in those days. Some learned their trade by becoming apprentices to more experienced doctors. Others attended brief courses at medical schools. La Crosse patients had an advantage, though, in the gentle but determined St Francis ward circa 1900 hands, hearts and spirit of the Sisters, who did whatever it took to help their patients without ever a glance at the clock. With the Sisters' prayers and hard work, many patients did surprisingly well. Still, there was much to be desired of 19th-century medicine. A hundred years later, life expectancy in the United States is 76 years. Infectious dis­ eases are no longer a threat. Heart disease, cancer, and stroke are the leading causes of death. Medicine today obviously is much more sophisticated, thanks in great part to the tremendous knowledge doctors gain through extensive education and experience. Technology allows us to view the body down to its smallest cells, to create three- dimensional pictures of organs to aid diag­ nosis and treatments. Even more significant is the new era of cooperation and collaboration in health care that provides care for the most minor of medical problems through the most serious. One such alliance was celebrated on July 1, 1995. Dr. Frank Powell, early 1800s Doctors perform an angioplasty, 2000 On that date, the entities that began life network of community-based healthcare as St. Francis Hospital and Skemp Clinic providers in cities and towns across the officially merged to become Franciscan region offer patients high-quality healthcare Skemp Healthcare, and as a single entity services close to home. joined Mayo Health System. Together, this Although the buildings stood next to Sister Helen Elsbernd, FSPA; Brian Campion, M.D.; David Nelson, M.D.; and Michael O'Sullivan, M.D., light a candle together during the partnering celebration. 10 each other for years and were physically dramatically represented the end of the old connected five years before merging, Skemp organizations and cultures. In another dis­ Clinic and Franciscan Health System were play of unity, the four representatives, each separate organizations until the documents holding a candle, lit one new candle were signed. The result was Franciscan together. Those symbolic actions marked Skemp Healthcare, jointly sponsored by the the beginning of something new and Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and exciting. Mayo Health System. "It was one of those moving moments," The creation of this organization was Dr. O'Sullivan said. "It was an honor for us symbolized at the partnering celebration in to be the catalyst of a local integration with La Crosse. Michael O'Sullivan, M.D., Mayo a tertiary care, academic medical center at Health System; Sister Helen Elsbernd, FSPA Mayo Clinic. The ceremony was very president; David Nelson, M.D., Skemp solemn. We had readings from the Scripture Clinic president; and Brian Campion, M.D., before we went forward and broke the president of the Franciscan Health System, pitchers. We had new energy in the lighting each carried a pitcher of water to the front of one candle. It was very, very meaningful." of the room. The water represented the cul­ tures, strengths and traditions of each entity. Dr. Campion and Dr. Nelson poured their water into a new bowl, symbolizing the blending of old traditions. They then smashed the pitchers they carried. This It's often said that the only constant in health care is change. It is a work in progress, driven by constant advances in medical practice and their accompanying financial implications.

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