Community should recognize hospital’s 60 years of service

6:34 PM Saturday, March 20, 2010

On March 29, Community Mercy Health Partners will officially close the Springfield Regional Medical Center on the Fountain Boulevard campus.

This is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate a 60-year legacy of dedicated health care service in our local community, in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Springfield.

There is much history attached to this building and there are so many individuals, some deceased, and many still alive and active in our ministries, who have shaped this history.

All of them can proudly lay claim and say, “I, too, have left my imprint on the health care of Springfield and Clark County.”

From their early presence in 1923 to 2010, the Sisters of Mercy have been pioneers, both as a sponsoring congregation and individually. Some 54 women have given of their time and talent in a life of service to ensure that the residents in the communities we serve received the very best health care.

On Jan. 16, 1950, Mercy Hospital opened its doors. Later named Mercy Medical Center (1970) and then Springfield Regional Medical Center — Fountain Boulevard Campus (2008), the hospital has served as an anchor in the community for generations of residents.

With each advancement in technology, its leaders responded to a call to grow, to expand, and to improve the availability of services for the community with further additions and modifications to the facility.

As the delivery of care changed, like many communities across America, there was a need to consolidate services. A community-led collaborative effort materialized to effect the bringing together of two excellent hospitals — including resources and best practices — in July 2004.

As they have done in the past, through their vision, the Sisters of Mercy partnered to transform the future health care system in our community so that we could look forward to a new state-of-the-art facility in 2012.

This new facility just south of Buck Creek rises before us in the shadow of the aging hospital facility on Fountain Boulevard. I’m sure the walls are already talking to each other!

Endings and beginnings, these are times of transition. We recognize this turn in the journey on the road of transforming and reshaping health care.

Together, we will walk into that future with vitality knowing that our God is for us all, a healing and compassionate God.

With all our hearts, we say thanks to what has been, and yes, to what will be, for the legacy of our healing ministry continues in Springfield, Clark County and our service area.

What will sustain us all is the 60 years of a living legacy of compassionate care for those in our trust.

Terry Weinburger is vice president of Mission Services for Community Mercy Health Partners.

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