Southeast Missouri Hospital

since its founding in 1928 as a small, 72-bed community hospital, southeast missouri hospital has grown to a highly respected 266-bed regional medical complex serving over 600,000 people in 22 counties of southeast missouri and southern illinois. history: as early as 1923 the idea of a non-denominational, non-profit community hospital was promoted by civic-minded citizens. by january of 1924, that idea had jelled into an informally organized hospital committee. after much discussion about where to locate a hospital, the committee turned its sights to property overlooking fairground park (now capaha park), the site for the area's annual fall agricultural exposition. it was to the west, some of the original incorporators argued, that the city would grow. that westward expansion, they surmised, would be prompted by the location of a new public school in that area (two years later, in 1926, franklin school was built). the southeast missouri hospital association was organized in 1926 for th