LDS Hospital

Adelia Parker's midwife's bag. Parker was a student of Shipp's.

Due to high mortality rates during childbirth, Eliza R. Snow and Brigham Young sent women to receive medical degrees in the East,[2] including Romania B. Pratt Penrose and Ellis Reynolds Shipp. Funding was secured from Mutual Improvement and Relief Society organizations.[3]^: 158 Under Eliza Snow's direction, the Deseret Hospital was established in 1882, and was mostly staffed by the women who received medical degrees. Despite the support from the Relief Society and the community, the hospital was shut down in 1890 due to lack of funding.[2] Deseret Hospital is commemorated at This Is the Place Heritage Park, with the replica historical building built in 2003.[4]

Despite the closing of Deseret Hospital, the community still desired an LDS Church-sponsored hospital in Salt Lake City. Construction of LDS Hospital began in 1903, funded by donations from the LDS Church and from W. H. Groves, a Salt Lake City dentist after whom the hospital was named.[5][6]^: 1 Groves saw the community need for a hospital with up-to-date services, so he donated all of his property to the construction and use of the building when he died.[7]^: 1 The hospital opened in 1905 and was dedicated by LDS Church president Joseph F. Smith on January 4. Patients were admitted on January 7.[6]^: 1 As part of the hospital's expansion, the east wing of the hospital was completed in 1913 and the west wing in 1929. The formula lab was completed in 1939.[7]^: 1 Extensive renovations also occurred in the late 1940s, with major additions in the late 1950s into the 1960s.[7]^: 2 The hospital had eighty bed spaces in its five stories, and kept up to date on modern technologies of the time.[2] LDS Hospital set up the first ICU, and a pioneered pulmonary function laboratory. Homer Warner used computers to create a system that streamlined total patient care.[8] The hospital grew to 571 beds, and in 1953, it shut down its pediatric unit after the completion of Primary Children's Hospital.[2]

Because of inadequately trained nurses, the hospital opened a nurses training school. Originally, nurses were housed in the hospital, but a separate nurses home was built in 1906.[6]^: 4 The original graduating class had five graduates in 1906, some of whom transferred from St. Mark's Training School.[7]^{: 2 : 16} In September 1920, the school registered with the New York State Board of Regents, and through the extension division, it became affiliated with the University of Utah in September 1927. [7]^: 2 In 1942, course work expanded for nurses and allowed them to receive university credit for clinical courses.[7]^: 2 In 1924, LDS Hospital offered two courses: one three year course for registered nurses and one eleven month course for home nurses, although the latter only lasted two or three years due to insufficient resources.[7]^: 44 In 1974, operation of the hospital was taken over by Intermountain Healthcare.[9]