The Daughters of Charity, Catholic Hospitals, and the Expansion of American Healthcare

For over two centuries, the Daughters of Charity, a community of Catholic sisters whose principal occupation was to serve the sick poor, significantly contributed to the formation and development of U.S. hospitals and other healthcare institutions. Donning their large white-winged cornettes, the Daughters served the sick poor during wars and epidemics and founded over fifty hospitals throughout the country. The Daughters of Charity and the Making of the U.S. Healthcare Industry traces their exploits from the beginning of their U.S. healthcare ministry in 1823 to the transfer of their large hospital network to a lay-sponsored entity in 2012. Throughout its history, this religious order experienced several important changes and milestones in medicine and American society: the introduction of germ theory, the rise of the health professions, several waves of Catholic immigrants, economic recessions, the expansion of the federal government into the healthcare arena (Medicare and Medicaid), racial segregation, cost containment, competition, and many medical innovations. This book recounts how the Daughters overcame challenges to the ownership and operation of their hospitals, how they employed certain features of their French heritage and the U.S. legal system to forge a vast hospital network while facing resistance from clergy, doctors, and government officials and prejudice against women and Catholics. With this contribution, Carl F. Ameringer offers to his readers a better understanding of the extent of the Daughters' accomplishments, of what Americans lost when their numbers diminished, and what we must do to sustain their efforts.