Pttblic Health and Social Welfare Work
393
sanatorium that needed them. The growing city and its many c1t1zens desired the care that only the Sisters of Charity can give to the sick. In anticipation of their coming. Father Ferrari had rented a two-story brick building, which was occupied by the three Sisters on their arrival, February 3, 1892. Twelve days later. on February 15, after making a few necessary arrangements. they opened the first hospital in El Paso, in the modest rented house with a ten bed capacity. naming it Hotel Dieu. Shortly afterwards. they organized a corporation, which was formally chartered on July 7, 1892. The purpose was clearly stated to be "the erection and maintenance of a hospital in the city of El Paso ... to administer to the sick, the helpless. and the afflicted and to nurse and care for them, to alleviate their pain and s11ff('ring- and restore them to health... .''' 7 • Before six months, so great was the demand for their services that they moved to a larger rent house., and a year later, they occupied the Deiter House on Upton Street and Prospect Avenue. They were now in a position to care a little better for rich and poor alike while their first owned building was finished on the site of the hospital today. The growth and development thereafter was rapid. Never neglecting- the poor and indigent, the Sisters took pay patients to he able to keep up the work and maintain the hospital. Before the end of 1894, the first unit of the new Hotel Dieu was completed. Additions were made as new space was needed until the present five stories were completed. The bed capacity ha<l been increased to one hundred as early as 1903, fully equipped with all modern facilities for the efficient and scientific treatment of the sick. In 1898 a School of Nursing was organized, which received full accred- itation in 1900 from the State of Texas. The diploma granted under this arrangement entitles the recipient to registration as a nurse in Texas and all other States that have reciproclll arrnng-ements with the State. A beautiful Nurses Home was built in 192~ llt a cost of ~165.000. The hospital has, in addition to all modern facilities such as an X-ray Department and a Laboratory Department. a Dietetic Department and n Pediatric Department. Fifty years after its establishment. the avera~e number of free patients a year constituted well oYer r2%. The prest'nt capacity is 200. and the daily average census I 55. ' 7 •From the orl,nnal Charter granted to the Sister~ of Charlt'\" of Hotel nteu F.1 Pa!lo, Tex:111. Archlve11 of the Secret:uy of St:ite. Austin, Texas: ·
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