MRHC - Our Heritage
McAlester Regional Health Center
A Celebration of 30 Years of Service…A Heritage of More Than a Century.
Thirty years ago, hundreds of area residents gathered to get their first look at the new McAlester Regional Hospital. That basic framework was the cornerstone for creating a comprehensive regional health care complex to serve citizens of South Eastern Oklahoma. The Health Center provides a continuum of care with the mission to improve the health and lives of the community.
McAlester Regional Health Center opened in June of 1978. The hospital was the fulfillment of an agreement between the Sisters of Charity and the McAlester Hospital Foundation to merge the community's two existing hospitals, St. Mary's Hospital and McAlester General. Before that time, McAlester enjoyed a wealth of medical history.
McAlester's hospital heritage goes back to 1895 with the establishment of the All Saints Hospital, the first civilian hospital in the Indian Territory. The Reverend Francis Key Brooke, an Episcopalian missionary, was sent to McAlester in 1892 to minister and render aid to miners injured in an explosion in Krebs. The accident, reportedly the most disastrous mining accident in Oklahoma history, killed 100 and injured another 100. Thus, motivation was borne to bring about the first medical facility to the territory. Through Brooke's efforts, the Episcopalian church sent funds to build a hospital. In a report to his Board of Missions in 1895, he records, "What we have wished for so much has been granted us, a hospital in the coal mining region in the Choctaw Nation. We may justly hope that by mid-autumn the hospital…will be doing its good work."
All Saints Hospital provided for the McAlester and surrounding communities for 30 years. Originally a 25 bed hospital, by 1913 the hospital had grown to accommodate a capacity of 100 patients. By 1923, the hospital and its nurse's training school had become so large that the Episcopal church made the decision to turn over the historic hospital to the Scottish Rite Bodies of the Valley of McAlester. Thereafter, what was once known as All Saints, became Albert Pike Hospital.
In 1928, Albert Pike moved its facilities to the Scottish Rites Dormitory, which had been re-modeled and extended for hospital use. There, Albert Pike enjoyed continued growth until, once again, it became necessary to move its facilities to a larger location. A vacant building built by the state became the Albert Pike Hospital until it closed in 1950. Albert Pike then became an integrated part of a new and larger patient care facility, the McAlester General Hospital.
The other link, in what would become McAlester Regional Health Center, is Mercy Hospital established in 1902 by Dr. E.H. Troy. Years later, due to failing health, Dr. Troy went to San Antonio,Texas where he negotiated with the Sisters of Charity, a Catholic Order to take over the hospital. In 1914, the Order acquired the home and grounds of Melvin Cornish, a local attorney to become the new St. Mary's Hospital.
After years of serving the community of McAlester, in 1972 the Sisters of Charity made the decision to close the doors of St. Mary's and integrate with McAlester General to eventually combine both hospitals to one modern facility. During the next few years, what was "St. Mary's" became known as McAlester General East.
As neither hospital facility had the capacity to fill the total health care needs of the region, the Hospital Foundation began plans to build for the future. Thus, the new McAlester Regional Health Center opened its doors in June of 1978.
Thirty years later, MRHC looks forward to experiencing continued growth today that allows us to build and reinforce a comprehensive framework for health care excellence tomorrow. Improvements in facilities, technology and clinical performance - across all areas of the hospital - enable us to meet and exceed national health care standards and provide the highest level of care both now and in the future.
