Timeline of Notable Firsts

Established the area’s first dedicated Pediatrics Unit

Southeast established Missouri’s first downstate NICU

Built and opened the region’s first free-standing cancer center and opened the area’s first Pediatric Special Care Unit.

Southeast opened the region’s first hospital-based home care agency

Opened the area’s first labor-delivery-recovery rooms on its OB unit

Opened the area’s first Chest Pain Center

Created first “web nursery” in the area with the introduction of “b@bies Online” on the hospital’s website

Southeast is the first hospital in the region to offer Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

First hospital in the community to implement digital imaging

First hospital in the region and first in Missouri outside a metropolitan area to earn Magnet Nursing Services Recognition and opened the area’s first medically-integrated fitness and rehab facility

First area hospital to earn Chest Pain Center accreditation and first community hospital to over robotic-assisted surgery for prostatectomies using the da Vinci Surgical System

First area cancer center to offer MammoSite high-dose brachytherapy for early-stage breast cancer and Introduced the area’s first consumer call center, providing free physician referrals and information about hospital services 24 hours a day

Southeast’s Heart Hospital is first in southeast Missouri and among first statewide to use Lifenet Stemi and Southeast’s new EP lab is the first in the world to have a dual-plane unit equipped with an EP Navigator

Region’s first Single Site daVinci robotic gallbladder removal surgery performed, and Southeast is first hospital in the region to utilize Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for individuals with neurological disorders

Region’s first TAVR performed, first in the region to introduce CardioMEMS Heart Monitoring technology for patients with heart failure and first hospital-based PharmD residency training in southeast MO - a collaboration with St. Louis College of Pharmacy

SoutheastHEALTH forms region’s first collaboration with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Cardiothoracic Surgery Division and Department of Pathology & Immunology to provide world-class care, close to home

Southeast partners with AVERA for area’s first virtual ICU program

Southeast is first hospital in the region to receive Certified Comprehensive Cardiac Center designation by the Joint Commission and American Heart Association

The region’s first behavioral hospital opens in Cape Girardeau, a partnership between SoutheastHEALTH and Universal Health Services, and Southeast Hospital establishes region’s first in-hospital food pantry to assist food insecure patients upon discharge from inpatient units

The first to bring COVID-19 testing and rapid testing modalities to the region; Positioned as a primary site of service for COVID-10 Vaccination distribution