When Elgin's Sherman Hospital began in 1888, it was a simple operation in a remodeled house with just eight rooms.

A group of local women from the Elgin Women's Club ran the hospital - scrubbing floors, cooking and washing linens while doctors cared for the ill.

From small beginnings, Sherman, Provena Saint Joseph Hospital and Centegra Northern Illinois Medical Center have expanded to become multi-million dollar facilities as the towns they serve have developed and populations swelled.

Elgin's first medical center, Sherman Hospital, was located in a two-story house with eight rooms on Elgin's east side.

Desperately needed in the growing river town, 36 patients were cared for in its first year, said Fern Risley, a longtime member of the Elgin Woman's Club and former director of public relations at the hospital.

Records show the first person cared for was a 23-year-old man with an inflamed knee joint.

"For years and years and years, they made the beds, sewed the hospital gowns and cooked the food," Risley said. "It was amazing what they did."

In 1893, with a substantial donation from Elgin philanthropists George and Mary Lord, the Woman's Club began construction on a new Sherman Hospital on North Center Street.

As more land and funds were acquired - and as the need for hospital care increased - Sherman Hospital continued to add rooms, services and staff members.

"They really pulled a lot of strings, and a lot of very prominent people in Elgin were constantly (called upon)," Risley said.

The Woman's Club operated the hospital until 1930, when a board of directors was formed and a hospital manager hired because the medical center was in dire financial condition.

By the 1950s, an addition added 100 more beds, for a total of 225. More additions were made as the need grew, until there were more than 400 beds in 1973.

With the founding of Saint Joseph Hospital at Jefferson and Prospect streets in 1902, Elgin had two health-care facilities with which to treat its ailing residents.

For the first two years of its existence, the hospital also was operated from a converted home. The hospital was started by four sisters from the mother house of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Joliet.

A new brick structure in 1904 held 35 beds. That number was nearly doubled with a major addition ten years later. But, as the need continued to grow, Saint Joseph officials found themselves with little place to expand.

A new Saint Joseph Hospital was constructed between 1971 and 1973 on more than 30 acres of west-side land. It was four times larger that its original east-side location and could house 240 patients at one time.

"They weren't going to get land-locked again," said Larry Narum, president of Provena Saint Joseph Hospital.

Centegra Northern Illinois Medical Center on Route 31 and Bull Valley Road has grown to be the largest of three hospitals in McHenry County.

The successor to McHenry Hospital, it was completed in 1984 with 196 beds and a Level 2 trauma center.

When McHenry Hospital was launched in 1956 at 308 S. Green St. in McHenry, there were just 22 beds available.

As more and more families - many with young children - moved to the Fox Valley in recent decades, the way doctors and nurses treat our illnesses continues to change.

In addition to full-service hospitals are smaller, immediate-care and family-health facilities that dot the landscape, close to home.

The hospitals' focus has turned to outpatient units as technology allows for more and more procedures to be done with little or no hospital stay, Narum said.

"Technology just keeps on developing," he said.

Hospitals also are continuing to specialize, making a name for themselves as "the best" at a certain discipline, instead of master of many.

A $3.3 million Regional Cancer Care Center opened in 1984 at Provena Saint Joseph Hospital.

Sherman Hospital has become the regional trauma center. Its doctors also specialize in cardiovascular care and kidney dialysis.

"There have been tremendous strides in technology that have really been of great benefit to the public," said Jim Ryan, chief operating officer at Sherman.

At Northern Illinois Medical Center, patients rehabilitating from a major injury can practice everyday tasks at "Independent Square," where a mock grocery store, bank, bus, car and boat offer real-life opportunities.

More improvements are on the horizon.

At Provena Saint Joseph, administrators are hoping for approval to rebuild operating rooms and the emergency-care unit. Work also has begun on a medical office building in Elgin and medical offices in Huntley.

Workers continue to construct a n outpatient facility at Sherman Hospital, which eventually will consolidate many of the hospital's outpatient services and the cardiovascular services, Ryan said.

Administrators there also are anticipating adding more family-care centers in the Fox Valley as need requires, as well as a continual-care facility in Huntley for seniors who require additional services.

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