When the first patients arrived on the doorstep of St. John Hospital in Leavenworth suffering from influenza and pneumonia, the doors were not yet officially open.

It was on that day in 1864 that the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth began a mission of serving the poor that continues today.

The hospital and its staff will kick off the institution's 140th anniversary at the Providence Health Founders' Gala in February. The celebration will continue with programs and exhibits, open to the public through 2004.

“St. John Hospital was the first civilian hospital established in Kansas,” said Greg Madsen, the hospital's administrator. “We decided it was important for us to celebrate our 140th anniversary to remind us of who we are and where we are going.”

The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth founded St. John Hospital at Seventh and Kiowa streets. In the early 1960s, the original hospital was destroyed by fire, and the current hospital at 3500 S. Fourth St. in Leavenworth was completed in 1964.

The hospital was the first in the Providence Health Sisters of Charity Health System, which includes nine hospitals in four states. The system also owns Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

One of the biggest changes occurred when the sisters turned over the duties of running the hospital to professionals who oversee daily operations.

The sisters continue to hold seats on the hospital and foundation boards.

When Mary K. Hurla, nursing supervisor and chairwoman of the hospital's historical committee, began working for the hospital in 1981, St. John was known as a community hospital. It provided basic emergency and medical services to residents of Leavenworth and the surrounding areas.

St. John Hospital has continued to provide its core medical services and was even recently given the highest score in pneumonia care by the Kansas City Metropolitan Health Care Council.

St. John also now provides many outpatient services, such as surgery, home health and palliative care.

The hospital also provides specialized care. For example, it offers a women's health center, which sees an average of 30 births a month. One of its most specialized services is the senior behavioral health center, which focuses on senior patients who have both mental and physical medical needs.

The hospital opened with 69 beds in 1864 and is currently licensed for 76 inpatient beds.

“One of our main challenges has been space,” Madsen said. “Our beds are usually full.” He hopes the hospital can expand within the next five years.

The facility also averages 2,000 outpatient visits a month, 800 emergency room visits, and caregivers make 2,500 home-health visits. Many of the outpatient visits have been to the medical plaza on hospital grounds and the outpatient surgery facility, which opened five years ago and has enjoyed steady growth.

But the hospital also has faced challenges in attracting physicians, such as lung and diabetes specialists. The challenge has given hospital officials the opportunity to work closer with Cushing Memorial Hospital, the other hospital in Leavenworth, to attract more specialty physicians together.

“We have a very open and cordial relationship, and we both have the goal of doing what's best for the people of Leavenworth,” Madsen said.

Although attracting specialty physicians has been a challenge, Madsen touts the hospital's staff as one of the hospital's greatest accomplishments. The hospital employs approximately 400 administrative and medical workers and has an additional 150 physicians.

“We have had much improved financial success over the past five years and I attribute that to our great physicians and staff,” Madsen said. The hospital's 2003 operating budget is $25 million and incoming revenue is “slightly higher than that,” Madsen said.

One of the misconceptions about the hospital, Madsen said, is that the Sisters of Charity gives it money to operate. In reality, the hospital receives some money from foundation and guild fund-raising efforts, but it relies mostly on patient billing to survive. The hospital reports that it collects approximately 44 percent of what is billed, a rate Madsen called average.

Roughly 6 percent of St. John patients have no insurance.

“We don't ask about insurance before we give care,” Hurla said. “Our mission statement's words may have changed over the past 140 years, but the mission has always remained the same.”