SSM Health (an initialism of Sisters of Saint Mary) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, non-profit

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

health care system A health system, health care system or healthcare system is an organization of people, institutions, and resources that delivers health care services to meet the health needs of target populations. There is a wide variety of health systems aroun ...

. It has 11,000 providers and nearly 39,000 employees in four states:

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Based in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, SSM Health owns

hospitals A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergency ...

, pediatric medical centers, outpatient centers, clinics, surgery centers, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, physician offices, emergency centers, rehabilitation facilities, urgent care centers, home care, and hospice.

History of SSM Health

SSM Health traces its roots to 1872, when Mother Mary Odilia Berger and four other sisters came to St. Louis from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, after caring for sick and wounded soldiers during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

. Facing religious persecution in Germany, they came to the

. When they arrived in St. Louis they began providing

nursing Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

care to people in their own homes. That winter, when a smallpox epidemic hit St. Louis, the sisters cared for the sick and dying. For a short time, people referred to them as the Smallpox Sisters. In 1874, the congregation received its formal name: the Sisters of St. Mary (SSM) from the parish where their convent was located, St. Mary of Victories near the riverfront in St. Louis. Five years after their arrival in St. Louis, the sisters borrowed $16,000, to open their first hospital, St. Mary's Infirmary. Almost 60 percent of their patients were unable to pay for their health care services. Account ledgers from this time identify those who were unable to pay for their services as an “ODL,” a designation that stood for “Our Dear Lord’s.” During this time, the sisters relied on God to provide for their needs as they cared for the poor. Most of the

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

facilities that today belong to SSM Health were previously part of a group of hospitals owned by the Sisters of St. Mary and centrally governed, but not centrally managed. In the mid-1980s, the sponsoring congregation decided to reorganize its hospitals into a system of centrally managed health care providers, and SSM Health was created in 1986. Today the system is managed by a team of professionals—both lay and religious—and governed by members of the sponsoring congregation as well as by laypersons from the communities served by its facilities. In 2012, SSM Health stated that it was 'disappointed with the contraceptive mandate' regarding being legally forced to cover such items by the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

, against Catholic

freedom of conscience Freedom of conscience is the freedom of an individual to act upon their moral beliefs. In particular, it often refers to the freedom to ''not do'' something one is normally obliged, ordered or expected to do. An individual exercising this freedom m ...

. In 2013, Dean Health System, a large multi-specialty physician group and health plan, finalized a deal to merge Dean and its subsidiaries, including Dean Health Plan, into SSM Health. The merger became effective on September 1, 2013, after all necessary regulatory approvals were received. In 2018, SSM rebranded its Oklahoma hospitals from "St. Anthony" to "SSM Health St. Anthony". The health system's physician's group in the state became known as SSM Health Medical Group. Also in 2018, SSM Health acquired Agnesian HealthCare from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. SSM Health is sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary and is one of the largest Catholic hospital systems in the

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

In 2002, SSM Health became the first health care organization in history to receive the

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recognizes U.S. organizations in the business, health care, education, and nonprofit sectors for performance excellence. The Baldrige Award is the highest formal recognition of the performance excellen ...

, the highest award for quality in the U.S.

SSM Health Facilities

Missouri

* SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital * SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital * SSM Health DePaul Hospital -

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

* SSM Health St. Clare Hospital - Fenton * SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital - Lake Saint Louis * SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital - St. Charles * SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital - Wentzville * SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital - St. Louis * SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital -

Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Missouri. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 United States census, ranking as the List of cities in Missouri, 16th most popu ...

Oklahoma

* SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital - Oklahoma City - Main Campus *SSM Health St. Anthony Bone & Joint Hospital (Oklahoma City) *SSM Health St. Anthony Healthplex East (Oklahoma City) *SSM Health St. Anthony Healthplex North (Oklahoma City) *SSM Health St. Anthony Healthplex South (Oklahoma City) *SSM Health St. Anthony Healthplex

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticate ...

( Oklahoma City metro) *SSM Health St. Anthony Healthplex El Reno (Oklahoma City metro) *SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

(Oklahoma City metro) *SSM Health Urgent Care Shawnee (Shawnee) *SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital - Midwest Midwest City, Oklahoma (Oklahoma city metro) *SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital - Shawnee, Seminole Campus (

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

)

Wisconsin

*SSM Health St. Clare Hospital - Baraboo *SSM Health St. Clare Meadows Care Center Baraboo * SSM Health St Mary's Hospital - Madison *SSM Health St. Mary's Care Center - Madison *SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital - Janesville *Dean Health Plan - Madison *SSM Health Dean Medical Group - Madison * SSM Health St. Agnes Hospital - Fond du Lac *SSM Health Waupun Memorial Hospital - Waupun *SSM Health Ripon Community HospitalCenter -

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Within the boundaries of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...

*SSM Health Monroe Clinic Medical Group *SSM Health Monroe Hospital *SSM Health Dean Medical Group - Stoughton *SSM Health Stoughton Hospital - Stoughton

Illinois

*SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital - Centralia *SSM Health Good Samaritan Hospital - Mt. Vernon

Notes

External links

SSM Health website
{{DEFAULTSORT:SSM Health Healthcare in Missouri Healthcare in Illinois Healthcare in Wisconsin Healthcare in Oklahoma Companies based in St. Louis Catholic health care Medical and health organizations based in Missouri Catholic hospital networks in the United States