Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg

Mt. Carmel Hospital was founded in 1903 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Wichita, Kansas under the direction of Mother Mary Bernard Sheridan,[2] incidentally the same year as the founding of Pittsburg State University. The hospital's original mission was to serve miners and their families with its first 20-bed facility located between Pittsburg, Kansas and Frontenac, Kansas. After expansion in the 1960s, further growth was impeded by under-mining on the then-current hospital site. A community fundraising drive was initiated, and in 1971, the new five-floor, 188-bed facility at Rouse and Centennial was occupied.[3]

In 1995 the first major expansion of the Mt. Carmel Medical Center building came in the form of the Mt. Carmel Regional Cancer Center, a facility that has since been designated as a Community Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute, the only cancer center in the region to receive the designation.

In that same year the hospital became a part of the newly formed Via Christi Health System as the healing ministries of its sponsoring organization, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Wichita, Kansas and the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, also of Wichita, joined forces.[4]

The name of the hospital was changed to Mt. Carmel Regional Medical Center (MCRMC) in 2001 to reflect the facility's increasing presence as a regional health provider.

In October 2009 Via Christi Health Systems, Mt. Carmel's parent company, announced it would be re-branding MCRMC as Via Christi beginning in 2010, while preserving the historic Mt. Carmel name with a new street address of 1 Mt. Carmel Way for the hospital facility.[5] The signage change was completed March 22 and 23, 2010, while the official name change ceremony took place March 26, 2010.[6] At that time, Via Christi Health Systems also began a US$7.1 million renovation of the main entrance, cafeteria, gift shop, and cancer and heart centers at its Pittsburg, KS facility.