The History of St. Charles Bend
On a ship bound for Ireland in 1908, a Catholic priest from Bend struck a friendship with a nun from Tipton, Indiana. Father Luke Sheehan would convince Mother Gertrude Moffitt of the need for a hospital in the small timber town.
Ten years after that fateful meeting, the Sisters of St. Joseph arrived in Bend to start a small hospital. The Sisters opened their first hospital on the bank of the Deschutes River in 1918.
The Sisters built a larger hospital on "Hospital Hill" in downtown Bend in 1922. They blessed and named the new hospital in honor of Bishop Charles O'Reilly, the first bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Baker.
A more modern facility was constructed at the same site in 1951.
Still, St. Charles had outgrown the downtown site by 1970. With limited land available in Bend, the hospital purchased land on the far outskirts of town. At the time, people joked the new hospital would be halfway to Burns.
The Sisters of St. Joseph were not in the position to assume the debt load of a large new facility. In 1972, the Sisters transferred all assets from the old hospital to the newly formed St. Charles Medical Center, Inc.
St. Charles merged with the 48-bed Central Oregon District Hospital in Redmond in 2001 in order to better serve patients in Central Oregon. The two hospitals formed a regional health system which is now called Cascade Healthcare Community.
To keep up with the unprecedented growth in Central Oregon, St. Charles Bend has increased its bed capacity to 261 and recently completed major expansions of facilities, technology and equipment.
The Catholic Tradition
St. Charles Bend is no longer owned or managed by a Catholic order or organization but it continues to follow the Catholic Health Directives. Whereas the parent organization - Cascade Healthcare Community - and St. Charles Redmond are secular organizations, St. Charles Bend cooperates materially with the Diocese of Baker as it relates to the Catholic Health Directives.
Today's Regional Medical Center
St. Charles Bend has grown from a small hospital on the Deschutes river bank to a regional referral medical center serving more than 240,000 people living in a 32,000 square mile area of Central and Eastern Oregon. Patients from as far away as John Day and Lakeview access services at St. Charles Bend. The hospital is no longer on the outskirts of town, as the fast-growing city of Bend has developed beyond the medical campus.
With more than 250 physicians on its active medical staff, St. Charles offers nearly 40 specialties and subspecialties including: