St. Boniface General Hospital (Winnipeg) - History

History

St. Boniface Hospital was established by the Grey Nuns in 1871, the first hospital west of Quebec. At that time, it was a small facility with four beds. An operating room was added in 1894. The Grey Nuns opened a school of nursing in 1897 and used the hospital to teach patient care. By the early 1900s, the hospital was treating approximately 2,500 patients per year. An isolation hospital and nurse's residence was added in 1900. Due to overcrowding, a new addition was built in 1905, effectively doubling the patient capacity of the hospital. It was awarded provisional approval by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in 1944, later becoming the office of the Manitoba Chapter of the ACS. As of 2003, the hospital has 554 beds and 78 bassinets.

The hospital order was incorporated in 1960 under the name St. Boniface General Hospital, giving it the right to invest and borrow money, own property, and collect fees for services. St. Boniface Hospital, along with the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, opened the first hospice programs in Canada in 1975. The Hospital Research Centre opened in 1987, becoming the first Canadian free-standing medical research facility. During the 1997 Red River Flood, the hospital had to be evacuated, and has since created a disaster plan to cope any future evacuations or closures.

The Institute for stained glass in Canada has documented the stained glass at St Boniface Hospital.