Since the beginning, we knew we were headed in the right direction.
In 1880, Sister Cecilia Carroll, RSM, and three companions traveled from Savannah, Georgia to Atlanta to minister to the sick. With just 50 cents in their collective purse, the sisters opened the Atlanta Hospital, the first medical facility in the city after the Civil War.
Supported by generous donations, the Sisters nurtured the hospital in Atlanta which soon became known as Saint Joseph's Infirmary. Over the years, they moved from a small house on Baker Street to a three-story building on Courtland Street (now the site of the Marriott Marquis Hotel), becoming the region's largest hospital. In the early 70s, the Board of Trustees voted to move from the overcrowded downtown site to a spacious 32-acre campus in north Atlanta. Renamed Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta, the new facility was dedicated in February 1978. The rest, as they say, is history...
The first hospital in the Southeast to perform open-heart surgery (1957)
The first hospital to develop a comprehensive cardiac catheterization laboratory (1967)
The first hospital to provide angioplasty as an alternative to bypass surgery. (One of only two adult heart transplant centers in the state.)
Continue to perform more open heart surgeries, cardiac catheterizations, angioplasties, and more vascular surgery than any other hospital in metro Atlanta and Georgia.
In 2002, Saint Joseph's became the first hospital in Georgia - and one of only a few in the nation - to perform robotic-assisted, totally-endoscopic, closed-chest heart surgery.
The only training site in the Southeast for the da Vinci Surgical System.
In 2004, Saint Joseph's acquired the Leksell Gamma Knife C, the most technologically advanced means of treating life threatening brain diseases.
In 2003, Saint Joseph's acquired the American Cardiology Research Institute (ACRI), one of the country's premier cardiovascular research laboratories.
In 2004, Saint Joseph's was one of only three hospitals in the nation to receive the Magnet Recognition for Nursing Excellence for the third time, remaining in the top one percent of hospitals in the country.
Also in 2004, Saint Joseph's was designated as a Premium Cardiac Specialty Center as part of UnitedHealth Group's new Premium Network
J.D. Power and Associates has recognized Saint Joseph's as a Distinguished Hospital for Service Excellence providing an outstanding patient experience in 2004 & 2005.
For two consecutive years (2004, 2005), HealthGrades, the nation's leading provider of health care quality information, rated Saint Joseph's a distinguished hospital for clinical excellence, placing it in the top 5% of hospitals in the country.
For the fourth consecutive year, Solucient, a national health care information company, named Saint Joseph's one of the nation's 100 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals and one of the 100 Top Orthopaedic Hospitals.
