St. Luke’s is a 532-bed hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was founded in 1884 as Cedar Rapids’ first hospital and is now one of two hospitals in Cedar Rapids, the other being Mercy Medical Center. St. Luke’s emergency department treats over 55,000 patients each year and the most cases of trauma in Iowa. This has led to a partnership with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for training future ER doctors. It is the community’s only hospital to provide open-heart surgery capabilities and the area’s only Level II Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. St. Luke's provides a Level III trauma center.
History
In 1881 a critically injured homeless man who was unable to get care in Cedar Rapids inspired a local Episcopal minister to act. The following Sunday, the Rev. Samuel Ringgold made an impassioned plea for a hospital, "a real hospital, so that citizens and strangers alike can be cared for." The next day he and his flock began soliciting donations. Within months, work began on St. Luke’s.
Accreditation
St. Luke’s is the area's only nationally accredited inpatient rehabilitation unit by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). St. Luke’s is also the first rehab program in the state of Iowa to receive the CARF Inpatient Rehabilitation Stroke Specialty Program accreditation.
Awards
The hospital was awarded Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals award in 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2012 and has also received the 100 Top Heart Hospitals for heart care three times, based on results from an annual study. St. Luke's is the only hospital in eastern Iowa to earn these distinctions. St. Luke’s Hospital’s Emergency Department has received an Outstanding â€" Gold Standard of Care Award from the National CRUSADE Quality Initiative, which ranked St. Luke’s in the top 10 percent of 408 participating hospitals for providing the best care for cardiac patients.
In 2009, St. Luke's was the first hospital in Cedar Rapids to receive the Magnet Award for Nursing Excellence by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
St. Luke's Women's and Children's Center was the first birth care center in the nation to receive the national award for outstanding Family-Centered Maternity Care. Family-Centered Maternity Care is an approach to providing care for women and their families that integrates pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and infant care into the continuum of the family life as normal, healthy life events. The care provided is individualized and recognizes the importance of family support, participation and choice.
2008 flooding
St. Luke's Hospital was one of the buildings in Downtown Cedar Rapids that didn't get any damage from the Iowa Flood of 2008. Some patients from Mercy Medical Center were transferred to St. Luke's Hospital when Mercy had to be evacuated because of flood damage there.
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