By Drew Gagner, St. Mary Medical Center Foundation President
Sometimes you can’t go back. Decisions you make change lives, yours or others, forever.
Fortunately, in Greater Long Beach we have many choices, particularly in health care. All of the major healthcare providers, including St. Mary Medical Center, share the common goal of preserving and protecting your life and the lives of those you love. Are we competitive? Of course we are. And we should be. Competition promotes efficiency and fosters excellence, which saves lives. Our goals mirror each others; only the methods and philosophies are different and even then, vary only slightly. We are separated not by gaping differences in care, but by nuances in ability, access and attitude.
Always seek the best care you can, but rest assured that here in Long Beach, those who care for you also care about you.
We, at St. Mary, are proud and enthusiastic members of the Long Beach family, a community of neighborhoods, ethnic enclaves, social divisions, and geographic districts that our Medical Center has embraced since the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word opened a very special hospital here almost ninety years ago. As one of the community’s major employers and a key provider of health care services and medical expertise, we have earned a prominent role in the Long Beach healthcare family.
We do not live here alone, however, and certainly we are not the only important family member. We are not the oldest, largest or wealthiest local healthcare provider. Long Beach has a number of fine hospitals and medical centers, each with its own particular strengths. St. Mary is proud to be associated with these healthcare providers and call them colleagues. We are proud to deliver unparalleled care in many key areas, and serve it up with a heaping portion of spiritual support, while striving to reach further and in more directions to ensure the underserved have access to the care they deserve.
The latest of these efforts, our new Breathe Easy Mobile Care Clinic, has quite literally hit the streets as of May 17, 2012, to serve those in need of respiratory care in our community. It is a 38-foot, custom-built vehicle which will bring asthma education and respiratory services to the streets of Long Beach. In the next year, we project serving more than 22,750 units of services around the Port of Long Beach, which generously provided an $834,000 grant to fund the mobile unit.
In addition, we continue to serve over 150,000 patients annually including more than 50,000 through our Emergency Department, which is ranked among the top 5% nationwide for excellence, along with the hospital’s recognition for patient safety.
Our Comprehensive AIDS Resource and Education (C.A.R.E.) Program provides almost 200,000 units of service. This program together with other St. Mary outreach projects, programs and clinics provided $36 million in community services for which the medical center receives no income to offset the costs.
While St. Mary Medical Center employees take pride in the fact that their employer provides more community outreach care than any other major medical facility in our city, we also receive the benefits of living in this wonderfully vibrant and diverse region. With approximately 1,450 employees spending their cumulative total income of $100 million in our communities, we know we are making a positive impact on businesses large and small.
We’ve thrown out some pretty large numbers here, 22,000, 50,000, 200,000, 36 million and 100 million. But the most significant number of all is the number one. It’s the next person who comes through the doors at the St. Mary Medical Center entrance, steps into our mobile van, or opens the door when a St. Mary nurse, Case Worker or Outreach Educator arrives for a home visit.
Whether you choose St. Mary or one of the other local hospitals in Long Beach, we want you to know that all of us working in healthcare have one thing we focus on every minute of every day. It’s you — our community of one.