Recognizing 150 Years of Service by St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center

RECOGNIZING 150 YEARS OF SERVICE BY ST. VINCENT MERCY MEDICAL CENTER -- (Extensions of Remarks - March 03, 2005)

SPEECH OF
HON. MARCY KAPTUR
OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2005

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to recognize an historic anniversary in my district in Northern Ohio. St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center celebrates 150 years of service. On Wednesday, February 23, 2005, the hospital will mark this sesquicentennial with a dedication and blessing of its Historic Donor Wall and Marguerite d'Youville Sanctuary.

In 1737 Marguerite d'Youville and three friends dedicated their lives to serving the poor. They established a Hospital General, a hostel for the destitute. Because the hospital only admitted men at first, Marguerite took poor women into her home. In 1747, Marguerite and her companions took over the administration of the Hospital General, restored the buildings and provided a combination veteran's hospital, nursing home, orphanage, mental asylum, VD clinic, reformatory for prostitutes, and overflow ward in case of epidemics. The religious order Marguerite thus established was the Grey Nuns. Their successors continue her work.

In 1855 four courageous and idealistic Grey Nuns took their lead from their foundress and traveled from Montreal with a mission to care for the sick and needy in Toledo, Ohio. St. Vincent's hospital was summarily established. The nuns' mission was soon broadened to include the education of health care professionals, patients and families. One hundred and fifty years later, St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center still holds fast to the ideals of Sr. Marguerite d'Youville in its unwavering mission to provide dignified and quality medical care to those in need.

Today, St. Vincent's is a member of the Mercy Health Partners system, a faith-based consortium of six hospitals in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. St. Vincent's is a Level I certified trauma center, Life Flight air ambulance base, home of the Mercy Children's Hospital and state of the art acute care hospital. With 3,500 employees including almost 1,000 physicians on staff, it is one of our region's primary employers. Nearly 500 volunteers augment the staff.
St. Vincent's has not only taken its hospital mission to heart, but also its role as a community leader. The hospital has transformed the near-downtown corridor on which it is located and maintains an influential and benevolent partnership with the neighborhood in which it is situated.

St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center celebrates 150 years caring for the poor and sick by living Christ's teaching that "Whatever you do to the least among you, that you do unto Me," as the recent photo of Sister Lucius in the hospital atrium, and the scholarship foundation in her name, attest. Onward!

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