More #stjosephs130th historical insights! 📜 COVID1-19 wasn't the first pandemic to hit our halls. In 1918, the influenza pandemic hit Phoenix and St. Joseph’s became filled beyond capacity. There were so many patients that hospital staff worked around-the-clock shifts and patients were cared for in the hospital’s hallways. In Phoenix, the Women’s Club and other buildings were opened as emergency hospitals to help care for the sick. According to the Sisters of Mercy annuals, “the city found itself ill prepared to cope with the spreading of influenza” and “the hospital was unable to accommodate all the victims.” After the wave of illness had spent itself in Phoenix, many of St. Joseph’s Sisters voluntarily traveled to globe to provide help to those ill in the mining community. Today, St. Joseph's epidemiology department is made up of a team of highly experienced infectious disease experts.