Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital says the spiritual nature of its services sets it apart.

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Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital sets itself apart from other healthcare providers in that the faith-based organization believes “it’s not just the physical nature of our care – anyone can treat a patient – but it takes a special type of healthcare system to provide comprehensive care for a patient,” CEO John O’Neil says.

“Treatment is what we do and care is how we do it. We believe the special nature of our care should be paramount throughout our entire organization.”

Employees at the Binghamton, N.Y., hospital “pray with patients when they think it’s appropriate,” he continues. “Prayer is part of our ministry; it’s part of our leadership structure. We know if our spiritual nature doesn’t set us apart from other healthcare providers, then it would be meaningless to our sponsors who came to this country in 1833.”

World-Class Services
Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital was founded by the Daughters of Charity in 1925 and later became a member of Ascension Health, which was formed in 1999. The organization oversees 77 hospitals in 20 states and the District of Columbia, and is known for a commitment to evidence-based quality, says O’Neil, who is also the ministry market leader for the Northeast region of Ascension Health.

“Everybody talks about wanting quality healthcare, but we have set specific goals that all our ministries are involved in,” O’Neil explains. “We spend as much time focusing on quality as we do on financing because we believe it’s a social issue and a moral imperative that we provide world-class clinical care in every one of our ministries.”

‘Sacred Trust’
The hospital serves the southern tier of upstate New York, which has a population of approximately 300,000 people. It has been designated a Regional Cancer Center that O’Neil says has been nationally recognized.

“We have the widest array of treatment options for all cancers because we take an approach to integrated technology along with the human side of cancer treatment,” he says. “We believe the treatment of cancer is a sacred trust between the patient and the provider and should encompass not only the best in technology, but also the spiritual side of our care.

“We work hard to make sure we’re meeting all the needs of the patients not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually.”

Healthcare Initiatives
Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital is one of approximately 249 hospitals in the country that have been designated a Magnet Hospital of Nursing Excellence. Its parent organization, Ascension Health, works with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute of Healthcare Improvement in a pilot initiative that emphasizes nurses spending more time with patients at the bedside.

“When you look at initiatives for reducing falls in hospitals and for reducing surgical infections, the data has clearly shown that when you  are intentional in changing your practices as a collaboration between staffs, you can see a dramatic increase in objective quality outcomes, and we’ve seen that throughout the ministries and we have certainly seen that at Lourdes,” O’Neil says.

‘Healthcare is a Right’
Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital “believes that healthcare is a right in this country and we’re working very hard on seeing that there is 100 percent access and 100 percent coverage for all Americans,” O’Neil asserts. “If healthcare becomes a business and nothing more, then the poor and vulnerable will not be taken care of. Healthcare shouldn’t fit the standard business model of other types of businesses within the country.”

Each Ascension Health ministry is developing access initiatives to locate service gaps within its community. “It’s different in different communities,” he explains. “In some, there may be a difficulty in accessing dental care for low-income individuals and in another community, there might be difficulty in finding a primary care physician.

“Through our access initiatives, we’re trying to outline those gaps and put together plans that will deal with those gaps.”

The organization believes that access to healthcare will be a major initiative in the presidential election. “We believe we need to keep that at the forefront so whomever becomes the next president will provide 100 percent access to all Americans,” O’Neil says. “People think healthcare reform is nothing but a new way of paying for healthcare. I think it’s more than that. 

“It’s becoming accountable for the health of our communities, and we’re doing that in many different ways by focusing on primary care, providing a medical home to all of our citizens, providing the highest quality of specialists and really looking at that full continuum of care as it relates to the spiritual nature of healthcare needs.

“Ascension Health is trying to be at the forefront of providing the right care at the right place at the right time and for the right cost,” he adds.

Constant Commitment
In June 2006, Binghamton was hit with the worst flood in the community’s history. “It really was a mini-Hurricane Katrina here,” O’Neil recalls. “We had one community that was essentially wiped out and the hospital itself sustained $20 million in damage and had to be evacuated.”

Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital worked with neighboring healthcare providers to ensure that the healthcare needs of the community were met during the flood and that all patients were well cared for. “It’s a testament to our community that the hospital was back up and running in 10 days,” O’Neil says.

It is also a testament to the hospital’s commitment to serving its patients no matter the circumstance, “and that’s what our healthcare mission is all about,” he adds.