Benefactors play critical role in St. Joseph’s plan.
A decade has passed since I first joined the Board of Directors for St. Joseph’s Foundation. Those years have brought many changes to St. Joseph’s Hospital and the Foundation that supports it. Today, more than ever, St. Joseph’s Foundation plays a vital role in the health of St. Joseph’s Hospital.
St. Joseph’s Foundation was founded in 1981 to raise funds for the hospital’s Mercy Care Clinics, which cared for uninsured and underinsured children and adults. Since the services of the Mercy Care Clinics were largely uncompensated, the hospital needed a way to cover the cost of providing them. The solution was what was then called the Mercy Care Foundation, a non-profit support foundation that asked benefactors to help fund these vital community services. In 1990, the Foundation’s purpose was expanded to include all services at the hospital, and the name St. Joseph’s Foundation was adopted.
We can all be proud of all the Foundation has done and continues to do for the most vulnerable in our community.
But once again, our purpose has broadened. Today, a major focus for the Foundation involves supporting the hospital’s strategic direction.
St. Joseph’s Hospital is pursuing a strategy of making key services of such high quality that they will attract patients from throughout Arizona, the country, and, in some cases, from around the world. The targeted services are thoracic disease, neurosciences, pediatric subspecialties, and surgical subspecialties—areas where St. Joseph’s has the potential to contribute the most to the health of our community.
Creating centers dedicated to the highest level of excellence is an expensive proposition that cannot be funded by ordinary hospital revenue. Top physician-scientists must be recruited, research laboratories equipped and staffed, medical residency programs developed and run. These activities, while vital to the centers that St. Joseph’s is building, are not self-sustaining and, thus, require outside funding. That is where St. Joseph’s Foundation comes in.
For more information about how you can support that Foundation, please call 602-406-3041.
