St. Luke's memories

St. Luke's Hospital was built on the ruins of the dense Hohokam village called La Ciudad. It tilts at an angle because it had to fit against the original canal dug by Jack Swilling and his gang from Wickenburg. The Town Ditch or Swilling's Ditch was covered in the 1920s but Villa Street preserved the angle. Today's St. Luke's extends all the way to Van Buren Street with a ghastly spread of rocks and gravel. Yet the hospital you see above was built in the shady Montezuma Heights barrio of houses and public housing projects south of Edison Park. No gravel.

In my time on the ambulance, I spent a good amount of time at the emergency room of St. Luke's (or, as we called it with our dark humor, St. Puke's). In the New Testament, Luke the Evangelist was referred to as a physician.

Once, we heard an explosion outside and went to check what had happened. A patient had thrown himself off an upper floor and was well beyond our ministrations. On a happier note, we regularly had lunch (Code 7) at nearby Sevilla's (before it moved to McDowell), a family-owned Mexican restaurant surrounded by the 'Jects. The homeboys kept watched over our units so they wouldn't be broken into for drugs or stolen.

Off duty, I would visit my mother there, in her twice-annual stays as a patient, being treated for the emphysema that would kill her within a few years. The care was good.

I write all this because, after a century at this location, St. Luke's is closing.

Given consolidations and rising costs that have shuttered hospitals nationwide — hitting rural areas the worst — the news is not surprising. "Despite our best efforts and substantial investment in St. Luke’s, patient demand has stayed extremely low and our facility remains significantly underutilized," according to a letter from hospital President James Flinn. St. Luke's is owned by Steward Healthcare of Dallas.

The hospital was first established as a 12-tent tuberculosis sanatorium by the Rev. J.W. Atwood, and sustained by eastern donors — and locally by the likes of Maie Bartlett Heard. Women in the Board of Friendly Visitors were the backbone of its growth. Josephine Williams Goldwater, a registered nurse, became an early member (yes, Barry's mother). In 1950, the sanatorium became St. Luke's Hospital. It was locally owned until its sale in 1994.

One of the unspoken reasons for the closure is how this is yet another dolorous consequence of Phoenix sprawl. As more affluent and insured people have spread out, they have drawn hospitals with them, putting strains of Phoenix's center city institutions. Tempe St. Luke's — a tiny community hospital in the 1970s which housed our ambulance station — and Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa, both operated by Steward, will stay open.

To be sure, Mr. Joes and Good Sam (whatever its Banner corporate name is), along with Maricopa Medical Center (the old county hospital) and the VA, remain open and in some cases are expanding. But they're far apart. Phoenix resists convenient centralization. For example, Seattle's "Pill Hill" has Harborview, Swedish, Virginia Mason medical centers and the Polyclinic all within blocks of each other adjacent to downtown. None of this for Phoenix.

The closing is another blow to the poor neighborhood where it provided convenient care. It doesn't matter that Flinn writes about the hospitals within a 10-mile radius when many of these patients often lack cars or convenient public transportation. The area was the victim of a stupendous act of civic vandalism in the 1980s and 1990s when the unnecessary Papago Freeway inner loop and "mini stack" were rammed through.

Central Phoenix is on a roll, sure. It got an admiring article recently in Forbes. But not all is well and success can't be taken for granted.

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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.

Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Diane Eliese D'Angelo]

I was fortunate to work at St. Luke's while it was still a non-profit. It was staffed by longtime employees who were like family, and the care was excellent. Then managed care made its way onto the scene. This was the advent of the REAL death panels, with treatment doled out in dribbles and drops, and doctors earning higher salaries working for insurance companies than seeing patients. Around 1995, St. Luke's began its descent into the world of for-profit healthcare, getting sold every five years or so. With each sale, the facility grew shabbier. The factors you cite play a part in its closure for sure, but so does the ubiquitous greed that is Late Capitalism. I highly, highly recommend Elizabeth Rosenthal's "An American Sickness: How Health Care Became Big Business and How You Can Take it Back” for the big picture of how we got in this mess.

[Amy KIrkwodd]

Killed me knee y me grandma swore to me I’d be backed for more surgery which we don’t neeeed we know it’s unda construction 🚧 it’s PAC monies why even there’s very few left for such a sizeable Growing populous state hmm thanks grams what weird memory to have last riots set explaining to her nurse she is abuser and delivered babies in banner at des Sam and doesn’t need to heard out online

[Amy k]

Such a strange spot to shut down

[Bill]

Good Sam, St. Joes, Maricopa, and the VA are far apart? LOL...

[David Huizingh]

Actually, I'd have thought that the county hospital would have ended up serving much the same clientele, and they're going to build a new hospital on the campus between 24th St and 32nd St on Roosevelt, which is pretty close to St. Luke's. Oh, and they've renamed it, changing from Maricopa Integrated Health Systems to Valleywise Health (?!?. Lame name, when the previous name conveyed the mission much better and less ambiguously. I mean, why not Valleywide instead of Valleywise? Imagine the gratuitous expense of changing all that on all their systems on a budget from Maricopa County. I don't get it.

[Jon7190]

I worked for Southwest Ambulance from 1995 to 2005, the latter half doing ICU transfers where we would regularly take patients to and from St. Luke's. Even then, it always gave the impression of being a bit of a medical backwater. It certainly didn't have the bustling urban medical center vibe you would get at Good Sam, Maricopa MC or even St. Joe's.

It seemed like it survived on its specialties, like the cardiac department and inpatient psychiatric facility (which I hope will remain open). I don't believe it was any level of trauma center and the nearby MMC was much more of an emergency medical destination for the ACCHSS (medicaid) patients that predominated in the area. Those that did make their way to St. Lukes probably tended not to be well insured.

So, St. Lukes had a core clientele of patients established by their doctor or their insurance, but a lot of those people were increasingly being cared for at the numerous hospitals outside of the city core. It's sad, but not shocking that their patient numbers have gotten unsustainably small.

I wonder what will become of the building?

[Roger]

"By the way, the Hohokam ruins were all over the valley - they couldn't all be preserved, they are literally underneath the entire city of Phoenix. You can go see what was preserved at the Pueblo Grande Museum, by the way, at 44th Street and Washington. But that's only the tiniest fraction of what covered the entire Salt River Valley, from Tempe to where I'm writing this now, near New River in the west valley, and beyond"

I love it when you talk history- and point us to more of it.

Amazing that all those ruins are long gone. Sad, tragic.

[Cal Lash]

Currently the Museum of Northern Arizona has a great display of indigenous folks from ages ago and including a Native American interpretation of George Lucas Star Wars.

[phxSUNSfan]

Good Sam is now Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix and is now also an academic and research center in collaboration with the University of Arizona.

This is much like Ariozna State University's partnership with the Mayo Clinic. Mayo Medical became an academic and research center with ASU collaboration.

It is too bad Mayo decided to build their medical campus so far out in north Phoenix. My parents' insurance (Tricare/United Healthcare for retired military) sends them all the way out to Mayo for specialized services when she can't be seen on base. My mom is trying to get switched over to St. Joe's rather than having to drive all the way out to Mayo.

I've never been that far north in Phoenix and now that I live on the east coast, likely never will. What is there to see out there on a visit, really?

[Cal Lash]

You could visit Taliesin and view the surrounding desecrated landscape.
Or drive a few miles more NE and hang out with Joe Arpaio. The landscape beauty starts North bound at the Verde River.

Dosen't Mayo gets 10 percent up front in addition to insurance?

I like ole St. Joe's. Took a number of on duty visits while a cop in the 60's and been there for personal medical reasons. The only issue i have had is reminding them that first you have to bill medicare, then the secondary.

I would note that currently you can go to Fry's grocery store for many medical services. Not long before they will be doing surgery in the produce aisle. And currently you can by on line a pocket size EKG device to go with your small pocket sugar level tester.

Coming Soon
A small back pack containing an AI robot to assess all your physical and mental issues. And a self injecting drug for your Bi Polar actions.

Sun Fan
Let's is know if your in town. I'll pay for your coffee con Tequlia y Kalua.

[phxSUNSfan]

Cal, that sounds good! I'll let you know next time I'm home.

[Beverly Hope]

Unbelievable that St. Luke's is closing!!!

[Shelley Vebber]

I was a candy striper there from the late sixties until the early seventies. We were there for the transfer to the "new" hospital. As kids we were tasked with transferring patients. I have so many fond memories of our days volunteering there. Still looking for photographs of the old hospital.

[Dave Basham]

In 1951/52 I was a four year old who just contracted polio. My home doctor couldn't find a hospital who would take me, until he called St. Lukes. I was there in isolation for around 3 weeks. I remember my mother using a ladder on the outside of my first floor hospital room to visit with me during this tough period. She would stand for hours on the ladder looking through a screen on the partially open window. St. Lukes treated me like family. I am forever grateful for their labor and wisdom. DB

[Lynne E. Allen (Prekup)]

My father was the hospital administrator when St. Luke’s was a small community hospital. Under his leadership, it grew into St. Luke’s Medical Center with it’s Centers of Excellence. I volunteered there when I was in high school (1970-74). I worked there for 5 years around the time when it transitioned into a for-profit healthcare system. There were many wonderful things that happened there throughout the years. It’s sad to see that it is changed forever.

[Reggie Wegman]

Had a knee and hip replaced there on a floor that was only used by a certain orthopedic group. I think it was the 8 floor.
The rest of the hospital was in terrible shape.
What a shame in an area that has very low income population and now it has no local hospital. I have always worked in nonprofit hospitals. Totally different culture from the for profit institutions.