Equipment purchased includes a mammography machine, MRI and TVs for patient rooms
Published in the Oct. 15-28, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy. Photo by Marty Cheek
For more than a year, residents of the South Valley region have been concerned about the impending sale of Saint Louise Regional Hospital by the Daughters of Charity. Last Friday, Ontario-based Prime Healthcare Services was selected by the Daughters of Charity Board of Directors to purchase the Gilroy-based hospital and five other California hospitals in a package deal.
Whatever the outcome of the proposed sale, which still needs approval from the Vatican and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the South Valley’s residents can be sure that volunteers with the nonprofit Saint Louse Regional Hospital Foundation will work to ensure that patients receive the best healthcare possible.
“The foundation basically raises funds to help with buying hospital equipment and various sundry hospital things that are needed,” said Bernie Mulligan, a member of the foundation’s board. “It’s not for operating money, it’s for equipment that the hospital needs.”
Entrance sign to Saint Louise Regional Hospital. Photo by Marty Cheek
Equipment purchased over the years include a mammography machine, MRI and other scanning equipment, and television sets for patients to watch in their hospital rooms. The foundation holds two major fundraisers each year. In May, from 80 to 100 golfers play at the Boulder Ridge Golf Course at a foundation-sponsored tournament. In the fall, a dinner gala is held for about 300 people.
This year’s dinner gala is called Autumn in Provence and money raised by it will go to support the emergency room renovation now being done at Saint Louise. It will be held the evening of Saturday Oct. 18 at the Chiala Estate in east Morgan Hill. Tickets for the event are still available and can be purchased by going to the website www.slrhfoundation.dochs.org.
The foundation makes a big difference in how patients receive medical care at Saint Louise, Mulligan said.
“It provides better quality of care — better, more efficient, quicker,” he said. “The things that we’ve bought for them are well received. The doctors like the new equipment and thank us nicely.”
Mulligan joined the foundation’s board four or five years ago and has enjoyed teaming with the other members whom he calls easy to work with and energized.
“It’s a good meeting group, it’s one I enjoy. I’m not a meeting person, but I enjoy working with this group,” he said. “My father was a physician in New Jersey and that how I have a love for medicine. So when George Chiala, who helped start the foundation, asked me to be on the board, I didn’t hesitate. I said I’d be honored to do that. And that’s how I came on board four or five years ago pretty much.”
The foundation works with members of the community who want to help support the hospital through donating their time and money, he said. There are opportunities to volunteer with foundation events or provide financial help through sponsorships and estate planning.
“They can make a donation through the foundation itself. We have a website where they can go and donate,” Mulligan said. “If it’s a large sum of money, we’ll get together with you and set it up and help if they want to make it a part of their estate. We’re not a heavily endowed hospital because we’re so new. We’re not like Stanford Hospital which has been around for so many years. That makes a difference.”
Board member Mary Beth Anderson, who is the chair of the Autumn in Provence gala, said that when she grew up in the Saratoga region, she was inspired by the dedication of the Daughters of Charity for their work in healthcare. Her father in law, brother in law and husband are orthopedic surgeons.
“My family had two generations of physicians and worked with the Daughters of Charity from the 1950s to the present,” she said. “So that was definitely a draw for me because they’ve been part of our lives.”
The foundation chose the theme of Autumn in Provence because of the French origins of the Daughter of Charity.
“The order of the Daughter of Charity was started in Paris, and so we thought we’d bring it full circle and it was an opportunity for us to thank them and tie it in to where their house is located and moved to that culture,” she said. “We found a chef whose specialty is French food — Chef Michael Miller. He was awarded one Michelin star two years in a row. I’m very proud of him for that.”
Saint Louise is one in six hospitals in the chain run by Daughters of Charity Health Care System. Its sphere of service is southern Santa Clara County and San Benito County. The hospital has 96 licensed beds and has 554 employees in addition to more than 200 physicians. Its emergency room serves about 26,000 patients annually.
As the transition starts for the new hospital ownership, the Saint Louise Regional Hospital Foundation will work to make sure that the South Valley hospital is a first-class facility for patient care.
“It doesn’t matter who owns it or is buying it so long at they want the facility to be the best that it can be,” Anderson said. “Maybe this is the best time to make it the best that it can be so we can show the new buyer that we want to take proper care of our citizens and provide them with excellent care.”
