Mercy General Health Partners

Description

Our Mission
We serve together in Mercy Health Partners
In the spirit of the Gospel
To heal the body mind and spirit
To improve the health of our communities
And to steward the resources entrusted to us

Our Core Values
Respect

Social Justice

Compassion

Care of the Poor and Underserved

Excellence

Our Promise
We work together to serve you with the same respect and dignity that we expect for our own families

History

Our History
Mercy Health Partners was created in 1998 when Muskegon Mercy Healthcare System and Muskegon General Hospital merged Our Mission reads quotFounded in the traditions of Osteopathic and Allopathic healthcare and rooted in the Gospel values and the ministry of Catherine McAuley we are called to create a healthier communityquot This mission refers to the historical beginnings of both the Sisters of Mercy and Osteopathic Medicine

The Sisters of Mercy
Catherine McAuley was born to a wealthy family in Ireland in 1778 However with the death of her father the family lost its fortune To support herself Catherine lived with and cared for an elderly couple the Callahans on the outskirts of Dublin

Before he died Catherines father James was an example of Christs love sharing his home and money with the destitute His actions influenced Catherine and her mercy in turn inspired William Callahan to leave his fortune to her This inheritance allowed Catherine to build the House of Mercy a home for poor and uneducated people in Dublin On December 12 1831 Catherine officially formed a new religious community professing her vows and becoming the first Sister of Mercy

Over the next 10 years Catherine personally established 12 of the 14 original foundations in Ireland and England In 1841 she became sick and weakened by tuberculosis she returned to her beloved House of Mercy where she died on November 11 The story of her death continues to inspire people today

The works of Mercy spread around the world and by the 1970s the Sisters of Mercy of Detroit were sponsoring 25 hospitals in Michigan Iowa and Indiana The establishment of Mercy Health Services in 1983 refocused energy on information services home health services for the aging and the beginnings of managed care

The Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit and the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross consolidated their health ministries Mercy Health Services and Holy Cross Health System to form a new system called Trinity Health in 2000 Mercy Health Partners is a member of Trinity Health

What remains from Catherine McAuley is the commitment to serve those in need and the values now expressed in the organizational values of Trinity Health Respect Social Justice Compassion Care of the Poor and Underserved and Excellence

Muskegons First Hospital A brief history
On April 16 1903 under the leadership of Sister Mary Joseph Miller and three Sisters of Mercy from the Big Rapids area Sister Mary Catherine OConnor Sister Mary Patrick Connor and Sister Mary Phillip Fitzgerald founded Mercy Hospital in Muskegon The hospital opened its doors that day in the former home of LG Mason on Jefferson Street in downtown Muskegon The first patient a woman suffering from appendicitis was admitted on opening day surgery was performed and 14 days later she was released and the new 25 bed hospital was on its way to becoming established in the community

Sister Mary Joseph served as the first president of Muskegons new Mercy Hospital
Wasting no time the Mercy Training School for nurses was opened in May 1903 By 1907 the first graduating class of three students entered the profession and began working at the hospital The school continued to train Muskegon area nurses until the 1970s

The hospital underwent a doubling of size in July of 1904 The expansion was funded through community donations Growth continued and by 1916 it was apparent that anew building was needed to meet healthcare needs of a growing Muskegon community The new building replaced the original and provided 125 beds and was opened in 1921 The building was four stories tall and would be the home of Mercy Muskegon until its relocation to Sherman and US 31 in 1973 Before the move a number of expansions and additions were made including a 67 bed addition on Fifth Street which gave Mercy capacity of 85 beds

Mercy led the community in providing new and first time services to Muskegon that included coronary care 1965 ambulatory care 1965 an alcoholism care unit 1971 and hemodialysis 1972

The physical move to the new 235 bed facility on Sherman Boulevard from downtown took the efforts 180 men from 394th Army Reserve Unit Station Hospital from Grand Rapids the employees and medical staff of Mercy hospital and Professional Ambulance service

The new structure was revolutionary at the time it was built of CorTen steel and was the first hospital in the nation to be built with this metal

In 1974 the Sisters of Mercy Province of Detroit faced with the complexity of operating 17 hospitals in 3 states formed a new corporation to better govern and manage the hospitals It was known as the Sisters of Mercy Health Corporation later Mercy Health Services and now after a merger with Holy Cross of South Bend Indiana Trinity Health

In 1982 Dr Steven Demos performed the first openheart surgery at Mercy thus establishing Mercy as Muskegons heart hospital Mercy Health Partners continues to perform openheart surgeries today nearly 400 each year In 1988 a major fund campaign to establish a Critical Care Unit was conducted and 2 million was pledged The unit was named in honor of Dan and Mavis Thill In 1989 three living centers were opened McAuley Place University Park and Shorehaven
The most significant change since its founding was in1995 with Muskegon General Hospital and Mercy entering into a Joint Operating Agreement which in 1998 became a full merger with both hospitals operating under the name of Mercy Health Partners

A new state of the art Emergency Center was dedicated in February 2003

The former Mercy Hospital is now referred to as the Mercy Campus The former Muskegon General Hospital is the Muskegon General Campus

Muskegons Osteopathic Hospital
In 1942 a group of 21 Muskegonarea Osteopathic physicians founded the Muskegon Osteopathic Hospital with the purchase of the Torrent house Built in the early 1890s this 32room granite mansion was once owned by lumber baron John Torrent and was located on the corner of Third and West Webster Avenues Twenty hospital beds and various other pieces of equipment were purchased and on April 19 1942 the hospital opened its doors The operating room was located in the kitchen of the home the tiles walls and floors made it easy to clean Patients recovered in various rooms throughout the house

Staffing the hospital with nurses was a challenge as a decree was issued that any nurses working at the Osteopathic hospital were immediately barred from working at Mercy and Hackley hospitals The founding physicians also attempted to secure a Quiet Hospital Zone sign but city officials refused to provide one as the institution was not recognized as a hospital

It was this antiOsteopathic sentiment that was the impetus for the creation of the hospital the physicians found resistance from Muskegons established hospitals in regard to practice privileges The new hospital provided a place for them to treat patients in an Osteopathic environment

The hospital was popular with Muskegon area residents and it was at capacity most of the time In 1954 plans were created to build an addition to the Torrent House This addition was completed in 1957 This new addition doubled the capacity of the hospital bringing the bed total to 67 which included adult pediatric and newborn beds The new threefloor facility contained an Emergency Room an OB Unit two surgery suites and other clinical and support services Continued growth of the Muskegon population and a growing medical staff created a greater demand for hospital services thus leading the physicians to consider a new building in a new location

The site for the new hospital on a 20 acre parcel of land located at US 31 and Apple Avenue was selected and a 3 million 137bed facility was built and dedicated on May 29 1967 Its name changed too the new hospital was called Muskegon General Hospital MGH employed 300 employees and was described as one of the most modern new hospitals in the state

Further expansion was completed in 1982 this 3 story addition expanded the Emergency Department housed occupational and physical therapy an ICU and Coronary Care Unit as well as classrooms a laboratory radiology and nuclear medicine In 1995 an OB unit the Special Delivery Birth Center was added to the eastside of the building This state of the art LaborDeliveryRecoveryPostpartum unit has eight rooms and is set for expansion in 2001

Two significant activities took place in the mid1990s The first when Muskegon General Hospital and Mercy Hospital entered into a Joint Operating Agreement and the second in 1998 when the JOA became a full merger with both hospitals operating under the name of Mercy Health Partners As part of the merger agreement the Muskegon General Foundation received 75 million dollars from Mercy Health Services changed its name to Muskegon General Osteopathic Foundation