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The CHRISTUS Legacy
Doctor's dedication sets foundation for CHRISTUS Schumpert
CHRISTUS Schumpert in Shreveport, La. traces its history to 1894 when Dr. T.E. Schumpert, a Shreveport physician and surgeon, opened a 16-bed hospital. In 1898, Dr. Schumpert opened a nursing school at the hospital which degreed hundreds of nurses before it closed in 1955.
In the early years of the hospital, Dr. Schumpert served as administrator while he maintained his busy medical practice. Eventually, it proved to be too much. So in 1907, when a group of Jesuit priests suggested that Schumpert contact the Sisters of Charity through the local Bishop, he quickly did so. Seven Sisters, headed by Sister M. Beatrice Ryan, arrived to operate the hospital and nursing school under a lease arrangement.
A year later, realizing that he was critically ill with typhoid fever, Dr. Schumpert willed the hospital to the Sisters. He died a few days later in May 1908.
The need for a larger hospital became apparent almost immediately and in 1909 the Sisters purchased a building site. Their 90-bed hospital complex was dedicated on May 16, 1911, the third anniversary of Dr. Schumpert's death.
The new hospital featured four operating rooms, an obstetrical department and surgical emergency rooms. In 1957, the larger 342-bed T.E. Schumpert Memorial Sanitarium was completed. The towering 10-story facility was acclaimed as one of the most modern in the nation. With a staff of 650, the fully air-conditioned hospital included medical and surgical units, obstetrics, pediatrics, alcohol treatment, psychiatry and many other departments. The new hospital also featured the state's first cobalt unit for the treatment of cancer patients.
The 1960s ushered in coronary artery bypass surgery and heart valve replacements at Schumpert -- the first in the region.
The 1974 expansion, which was completed in 1980, expanded the facilities for surgery, laboratory, X-ray, emergency and special diagnostics.
The Heart-Lung Physical Rehabilitation Building opened in 1982. That same year, Schumpert became the first hospital in the area to perform radial keratotomy, a technique for surgically correcting nearsightedness.
Always devoted to improved patient care, the medical center announced a medical milestone in September 1984 with its first kidney transplant.
In 1985, Schumpert dedicated its Eye Center, featuring the region's largest staff of ophthalmologists.
The hospice program, which opened in 1985, was the first hospital-based hospice program in the Shreveport-Bossier City area that enabled patients to remain at home during the final stages of a terminal illness.
Throughout the 1990s, the CHRISTUS Schumpert Health System continued to expand and brought a number of new programs to the area, including the Cancer Treatment Center, the Women and Children's Hospital, a number of minor and primary care clinics and a Pain Care Center.
In the late 1990s, CHRISTUS Schumpert also established the CHRISTUS Schumpert Foundation, Grace Home, CHRISTUS Schumpert Bossier Healthplex Rural Health Clinic and CHRISTUS Schumpert Bossier Healthplex.
The most recent expansions have been CHRISTUS Schumpert Bossier, a 169-bed community hospital purchased in July 1999, and CHRISTUS Schumpert Highland, a 160-bed acute care facility purchased Oct. 1, 1999.
In 2006, the 80-bed CHRISTUS Schumpert Sutton Children’s Medical Center opened within CHRISTUS Schumpert St. Mary Place. The facility includes a 22-bed inpatient unit, 40-bed neonatal intensive care unit and 16-bed pediatric intensive care unit.
