100 Years and Counting

Recently, the Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center celebrated 100 years of service to the Reno community.  There was no fanfare; no big cake lit with candles, no large bouquets of flowers, no celebration dinner, no fireworks. Instead, the day passed quietly with the unveiling of a statue of Saint  Dominic at the Hospital.

Saint Dominic was the founder of the order in which the sisters of 
Saint Mary’s serve. 

They say God works in mysterious ways and this must be the case with the Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center.  A group of sisters were traveling from their convent in California to fulfill a need in Kentucky when one of them became ill.

The group stopped in Reno to allow the nun to recover. The bishop came to the sisters and asked them to stay and fill the need in the Reno area by starting a Catholic School. Needless to say the nuns agreed.

Over 160 of these dedicated souls have blessed the Reno area with their service for one hundred years.

The nuns opened the school; the bishop told them was so needed, in 1877. Mount Saint Mary’s Academy provided boarding school and day school to the children of Greater Reno area. In 1897 the convent began a novitiate program.

The sisters transformed their convent and school into a hospital in 1908 when a terrible flu epidemic hit the area. In those early days the hospital was known simply as the Sister’s Hospital. In 1910 the sisters began a nursing school. IN 1923 the American College of Surgeons honored the hospital with accreditation.

The nursing school has since integrated and became a part of the nursing program at Reno’s University of Nevada, the Orvis School of Nursing.

Today, seven sisters still reside at the convent and serve the community. Four of the sisters serve at the medical center which employs over 2,000 and serves nearly 200,000 people yearly. The remaining three sisters work in the community.

Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center continues to offer quality medical care through its main site, clinics, health centers, and mobile outreach vans.

In the words of Sister Maureen McInerney, “From the earliest days, some things have not changed… the main theme, the main emphasis, is that we are here for people in need.”

The Reno community is thankful for all the years of dedication and service provided by the Dominican Sisters and Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center.