Tradition of Firsts

 Innovation... It's been a St. Anthony's tradition for over 75 years.

St. Anthony's has always pursued a course of excellence, compassion, and technical expertise. A newspaper story written in 1933 spoke of the hospital as "one of the three leading institutions in the South."  Today, St. Anthony's remains in the vanguard of health care.

As an innovator, St. Anthony's has been instrumental in bringing a number of "firsts" in health care to Pinellas County. A partial list included the first department of Nuclear Medicine, the first Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, the first full-body CT scan, the first MRI Center, the first Stroke Center in Florida, and the first Chest Pain Center in South Pinellas County.

1948 First unit dose medication system in Florida

1948First community blood bank in Pinellas County

1959 First hospital on the west coast of Florida to establish a Department of Nuclear Medicine

1959 First hospital in Florida to use radio pharmaceuticals in diagnosis and treatment

1960 First Cardiac Catheterization Lab in Pinellas County

1966 First Coronary Care Unit in Pinellas County

1968 First pediatric light cradle in Florida

1969 First ostomy clinic in Florida

1969 First coronary care van in Pinellas County (forerunner of the current EMS fire rescue units)

1970 First family-centered maternity unit in Pinellas County

1972 First hospital to Southeastern United States to install and operate a computerized pharmacy

1973 First hospital to offer Holter Monitoring

1974 A world-wide first - Rogers Heart Foundation developed the world's first transparent electrode for recording the electrocardiogram during heart catheterization.

1975 First hospital in St. Petersburg to surgically implant an artificial lens

1975 First full body CT-scanner in Pinellas County

1977 First hospital-based kidney dialysis program in South Pinellas

1980 First Outreach Program in Pinellas County

1983 Opened Pregnagym, the first medically supervised exercise program for expectant mothers

1984 First Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center on the West Coast of Florida

1985 First hospital in Pinellas County to develop a home infusion therapy program

1985 First hospital granted a Certificate of Need for a home health agency in Pinellas County

1985 First comprehensive and medically supervised Fitness Center in Pinellas County

1986 First Bone Bank in Pinellas County

1988 First Vascular Rehabilitation Program in Pinellas County

1990 First non-teaching hospital in the United States to have the IMAGICA enhancement on the state-of-the-art cine biplane and digital cardiovascular imaging system used in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab

1990 First hospital in the area to offer Lasertripsy for the treatment of kidney stones

1992 First Chest Pain Center in south Pinellas County

1992 First Health Ministry Program - based on the parish nurse concept - in Pinellas County

1992 Opened Healthline- the first telephone information service staffed by Registered Nurses in Pinellas County

1993 First hospital in Pinellas County to develop family medicine primary care centers

1994 First Stroke Center in all of Florida

1995 First hospital in south Pinellas to offer Conformal therapy in the treatment of certain types of cancer

2003 St. Anthony's became the first hospital-based provider of intensity modulated radiation therapy (MRT) in Pinellas County

2007 First hospital in south Pinellas County to offer digital mammography for the detection of breast cancer

2008 First hospital in south Pinellas County to offer daVinci® Robotic Surgical System in High Definition.