Providence Behavioral Health Hospital, formerly known as Providence Hospital, is a

faith-based Faith-based may refer to: * Faith-based organization * Faith-based marketing * Faith-based community organizing * Faith-based school * White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships White is the lightest color and is ac ...

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

behavioral health and substance abuse medical center located in

Holyoke, Massachusetts Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,247. Loca ...

, providing non-emergency services. Founded in 1873 by the

Sisters of Providence of Holyoke The Sisters of Providence of Holyoke, Massachusetts, are a congregation of Roman Catholic religious sisters founded in 1892. History In November 1873, four Sisters of Charity from the House of Providence in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, came t ...

, Providence was originally the first full-service medical hospital in Holyoke, continuing until 1996 when it was converted to a psychiatric and behavioral health facility. In February 2020 the hospital announced it would cease all inpatient psychiatric services, citing a shortage of psychiatrists, effective June 30, 2020. The hospital will continue to maintain substance use disorder services as well as a methadone clinic. The hospital's adjacent Catherine Horan Medical Building also houses medical practices, as well as the Holyoke branch of the Massachusetts Office of the

Chief Medical Examiner The medical examiner is an appointed official in some American jurisdictions who is trained in pathology and investigates deaths that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictio ...

History

The hospital was first founded by the Sisters of Providence on November 7, 1873, in a small dwelling in South Hadley Falls to aid the sick and needy. In 1894 the Sisters opened a modern medical hospital in Holyoke on the corners of Dwight and Elm Streets, which also featured their residence on the top floor; the facility would serve more than 200,000 patients in its 64 years of use. The hospital's facility in downtown closed in June 1958 following the opening of its current facility in the month prior. The former facility was razed in the following year and the land leased to the city by the Diocese for additional downtown parking. The hospital would maintain a full emergency staff with medical specialists, surgeons, and an intensive care unit until 1996, when it closed and began transitioning into a behavioral care facility.

References

{{authority control Catholic hospitals in the United States Hospitals in Hampden County, Massachusetts Hospitals established in 1873 1873 establishments in Massachusetts Holyoke, Massachusetts