Our stories

told by the people of St. Charles

100 years. 100 stories.

The story of St. Charles began in 1918 when the first hospital in Bend officially opened on the banks of the Deschutes River. It started with five Sisters of St. Joseph whose mission was to care for all or care for none. The current location of the Bend hospital opened in 1975. It became a community, nonprofit organization in the 1970s and maintained an affiliation with the Catholic Church until February 2010. The spirit of compassionate caring first fostered by the Sisters of St. Joseph is alive and well at St. Charles today. This is our story.

No matter how far

Health care doesn’t just happen in our hospitals. We have caregivers visiting the far reaches of our 32,000-square-mile service area to bring medical care to those in our rural communities.

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The Cowboy in the Garden
“I worked my entire 38 years on the medical unit. I’m often there at the end of a patient’s life. St. Charles has always allowed us to really celebrate their lives. We really do patient-focused care.” - Susan Long, RN
Father Luke Sheehan
One priest’s determination sets the stage for a Catholic hospital in Central Oregon

Big moments

This place is full of big moments. Of split second decisions that make the difference between things not going well, and everything working out perfectly. This is a spacer line.

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Trading firewood for deliveries: OB-GYN remembers health care in small-town Bend
“It’s such an honor to be part of people’s lives at such an intimate time.” - Marlis Beier
Hospital traces to humble beginnings
The square clapboard house at 81 Oregon Street fit only a few patients. Surgery was done in the kitchen. Its only nurse lived in half the tiny building with her husband and five kids.
The Sisters come to Bend – Five Catholic Sisters leave all that’s familiar to bring help where it’s needed
On a cold, bright sunny afternoon in 1917, five nuns boarded the Pennsylvania Railroad at Kokomo, Indiana and headed west. It was Christmas Day, but the women had a rendezvous to keep. Their itinerary had been forged through nearly a decade of letters and conversations between a frontier Cupuchan priest named Father Luke Sheehan and...

Witnessing the extraordinary

“There is tremendous need, and tremendous people working here to help meet those needs.” – Bill Danaher

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Safe Place

This video was inspired by a story told by Lou Brown, patient access supervisor in Madras. Lou also plays a starring role!

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A visionary in motion
Sister Catherine Hellmann came to serve and changed the face of medicine in Central Oregon
Miraculous birth by today’s standards took place in 1982
“Neil’s size was mind boggling. The first time we were allowed to reach in and touch him, he put his hand around the tip of my thumb. So black and blue and bruised. He was the length of a ruler.” - Deborah Harrison
Austere beginnings
A growing community propels sisters to build the first St. Charles Hospital
House calls on horseback: Dr. Coe brings modern medicine to Bend
The Bend, Ore., Dr. Urling Coe stepped into the winter of 1905 was a world apart from anything he had experienced. Even in those days it was the type of place most people knew only from Western novels.