About Us

Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, WA, is a 372-bed, not-for-profit hospital with Magnet recognition. We provide first class cardiac, cancer, neuroscience and orthopedic care.

Board Members Community Support History
Board Members
South Puget Sound Community Mission Board
  • Jonathan Babbitt, MD
  • Jennifer Groberg, JD
  • Susan Hettinger, JD
  • Joann Hutchinson
  • Eileen McKenzie Sullivan
  • Brian Mittge
  • Mercy Mvundura, PhD
  • Ruben Ramirez
  • Fanny Roberts, PhD
  • Richard Stride, PsyD, MBA, LMHC
  • Laurie Tebo
  • Ian Timms, MD
  • Daidre West
  • Rachel Wood, MD, MPH - Board Vice Chair
  • Steve Ward - Board Chair

Community benefit investments are one way Providence lives its Mission. For generations, we’ve offered a caring hand to those with the greatest need in our community.

In the past year, we devoted millions in community benefit to make sustainable improvements in the health of our diverse communities throughout Washington.

See Details for Community Benefit in Washington State

Community Health Needs Assessments

For generations, Providence has partnered with people of goodwill to offer a caring hand of compassion. We collaborate with social service and government agencies, charitable foundations, community organizations, universities and many other partners to identify the greatest needs through community health needs assessments. Then our solutions are reflected in community health improvement plans.

View CHNA Reports

Key Dates & Milestones
  • 1887: Construction of the first St. Peter hospital begins in April.
  • 1887: In June, the Sisters see their first patient, a man from a logging camp who purchased a "billet" for care. The hospital formally opens in September.
  • 1887-1888: In its first year of opening, with a staff of four Sisters, the hospital serves 225 patients as well as four elderly people and four orphans seeking shelter.
  • 1889: The hospital doubles its original size and serves 523 patients.
  • 1897: Several Olympia women host a dancing and card party, raising $35.60 for the hospital to begin installing electricity. One month later, the work is completed replacing coal oil lamps.
  • 1917: First X-ray machine is installed.
  • 1919: Growing numbers of patients prompts the opening of a school of nursing, offering a three-year course of study.
  • 1924: New hospital site opens in west Olympia, featuring a maternity ward, nursery, two deliver rooms, X-ray and lab.
  • 1938: A clinic for the poor opens, staffed by volunteer physicians with equipment donated from the hospital. More than 3,00 patients are seen the first year.
  • 1942: A new annex is built to accommodate a larger nursing school, part of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps in World War II.

Key Dates & Milestones
  • 1955: The nursing school graduates its last class after training 341 nurses over 35 years.
  • 1965: The Sisters create an advisory board of 16 male community leaders to strengthen the hospital's bond with the community.
  • 1968: Coronary care unit opens with additional cardiac monitoring equipment.
  • 1971: Opening of the current day hospital tower on Lilly Road.
  • 1974: The first lay administrator, David Bjornson, takes over from Sister Claire Gagnon
  • 1975: Regional Cancer Center earns accreditation from the American College of Surgeons.
  • 1975: CAT scanning is introduced, followed by ultrasound in 1976.
  • 1979: St. Peter Community Health Foundation (later Providence Southwest Washington Foundation) begins its work to further the Sister's mission to meet health care needs.
  • 1982: Construction starts on a $34.4 million expansion, which includes a short stay surgery wing, psychiatric unit, intensive and coronary care, surgery, maternity and nursery areas.
  • 1984: Free-standing 26-bed psychiatry unit opens.
  • 1985: First cardiac catherization laboratory opens.
  • 1987: Sunshine House, a community effort headed by the Altrusa Club of Olympia, opens to provide temporary housing for families of patients.
  • 1988: The Foundation launches its first Christmas Forest auction, which now raises more than $450,000 annually for health care needs.

Key Dates & Milestones
  • 1990: Chemical Dependency Center moves to a separate site in Lacey.
  • 1990: The hospital partners with South Sound Radiology to install a fixed MRI facility for non-invasive diagnosis of neurological disorders.
  • 1991: The St. Peter Family Practice Residency Program begins in affiliation with the University of Washington School of Medicine.
  • 1991: Providence Mother Joseph Care Center, which provides transitional, long-term and Alzheimer's care for elders, opens just west of the hospital.
  • 1991: Regional Heart's Center's cardiac surgery, coronary bypasses, valve repair and replacement, and pacemaker implantation.
  • 1995: Hospital's inpatient rehabilitation program receives national accreditation.
  • 1995: Boldt Diabetes Care Center is named in honor of the late Dr. Kenneth Boldt who helped establish the diabetes care program in 1887.
  • 1997: New birthing center opens with 19 birthing suites featuring a one-room labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum concept in a home-like setting.
  • 1998: Providence St. Francis House opens, providing affordable housing for seniors.
  • 1999: Rated in top 100 hospitals in nation for cardiac bypass surgery, intervention cardiology, orthopedics, hip replacement and fracture repair.
  • 1999: Outpatient surgery expansion includes three new operating rooms and 15 new pre-op and recovery beds.
  • 2000: Volunteers serve one million hours since 1975.