Cabrini Sort Of Like A Death In The Family -- News Of Hospital's End Evokes Fond Memories

On the day it was announced their hospital would close, veteran nurses talked about the legacy of their special place.

They told of how Saint Cabrini Hospital patients who had a birthday in the hospital would always receive a chorus of ``Happy Birthday'' from every staff member on the floor.

They spoke proudly of how the enthusiasm for such personalized care carried from nurses to technicians to administrators.

They told of their concern for one another; of how they saw to all the needs of their colleague whose house burned; of how they gathered each year for the ``Cabrini community's'' spaghetti dinner.

``It has not been just a place to work but also family,'' said Sister Arlene Van Dusen, a 10-year veteran. ``Everybody on every shift knew everyone else - nights, days, in every discipline.''

Yesterday, the 400 staff members were told the financially troubled, 189-bed hospital would close Nov. 30.

A tentative agreement to sell the hospital to Swedish Hospital Medical Center fell through last week when Swedish officials found it would cost too much - more than $6 million - to remodel the Perry Building, the oldest part of the 74-year-old hospital.

An earlier agreement to sell the hospital to ERA Care, which operates retirement homes and health-related services, also failed when officials decided their plan to make the hospital primarily a geriatric center wouldn't pay.

Cabrini lost about $1.3 million in 1988 and its owners, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, had been trying to sell the hospital ever since. Although licensed for 189 beds, it had filled only about 80 in recent months.

Officials said Swedish would absorb Cabrini's alcohol and drug program (35 beds), skilled-nursing facility (33 beds) and outpatient eye-care center. Providence Medical Center in Seattle will take the hospital's in-patient psychiatric center (17 beds).

The Cabrini Tower, with 33 physicians' offices, and the adjacent parking garage will continue to be owned by the Missionary Sisters. Decisions about how to sell the hospital's three other buildings have not been made, officials said.

It was the highly regarded specialty programs that Cabrini officials had hoped would attract a buyer.

``But we just didn't have enough basic volume in this (competitive) environment to make it a viable, ongoing concern,'' said Sister Joan McGlinchey, provincial superior of the Missionary Sisters and Cabrini president.

McGlinchey said several factors contributed to Cabrini's demise:

Increased limitations on Medicare payments, while the bulk of the hospital's patients are elderly; the fact that Cabrini did not get a contract to receive Medicaid patients, and the difficulty of a small hospital, which didn't offer all specialties, competing with large, full-service hospitals such as Swedish, Providence, Virginia Mason and Harborview.

``I think the whole environment did it,'' said McGlinchey.

Cabrini is the seventh Seattle-area hospital to fold or merge with another hospital in the past six years. Most had the same problems as Cabrini.

There are still about 900 licensed beds in the area that are not being used, said Jim Nell, president of the Seattle Area Hospital Council. But he said all the hospitals still operating in King and Snohomish counties are healthy financially.

``I think we're in pretty good shape right now, ad that's not been true up until now,'' said Nell.

The decision by Cabrini officials was the beginning of the end of a historic institution.

Cabrini Hospital was opened as the Columbus Sanatorium in 1916 by Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen to be named a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

Cabrini arrived in New York from her native Italy in 1889. She did missionary work in seven other states before arriving in Seattle in 1903.

The Columbus Sanatorium, converted from the old Perry Hotel at Boren Avenue and Madison Street, was named Columbus Hospital in 1924. In 1956, it was renamed Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Hospital, and a few years ago became Saint Cabrini Hospital of Seattle.

After announcement of the closing yesterday, the hospital's longtime nurses already were planning ways to keep the spirit of their ``family'' together.

An annual potluck was discussed. Another idea would be maintaining each department's telephone chart for spreading the word about a disaster, perhaps for spur-of-the-moment ``pizza disasters.''

And all will be keeping their recently designed T-shirts - the ones printed with the heart, Saint Cabrini and ``the beat goes on.''