Scripps Mercy hospital’s roots go back 125 years

By Paul Sisson When Sister Rosanne McGrath walks through the doors at Scripps Mercy Hospital, she is extending a 125-year-old mission that began on July 9, 1890. That’s the day Mother Mary Michael Cummings admitted John O’Connell to St. Joseph’s Dispensary, an infirmary that occupied two floors above a men’s clothing store in downtown San Diego. According to the meticulous log kept by Cummings and fellow nuns of the Sisters of Mercy, O’Connell spent 13 days in bed with malaria before he was sent home in good condition. In their first year serving the city, the sisters admitted 117 patients. That was the opening chapter of a healing ministry that continues today at the hospital, which has one campus in Hillcrest and the other in Chula Vista. Read the San Diego Union-Tribune article: Scripps Mercy hospital’s roots go back 125 years