Grace Medical Center, formerly known as Bon Secours Hospital, is a hospital in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. The hospital is part of

LifeBridge Health LifeBridge Health is a nonprofit healthcare corporation that was formed in 1998 and currently operates several medical institutions in and around Baltimore, Maryland. These institutions include Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Grace Medical Center (B ...

, a nonprofit healthcare corporation that was formed in 1998 and currently operates several medical institutions in and around

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

History

The Sisters of Bon Secours are a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of religi ...

with the mission of caring for the sick and dying. The name ''Bon Secours'' is French for "''good help''." Members of the group came to Baltimore from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in the 1870s, and they bought the former

Maryland Square "Maryland Square", later known as "Steuart Hall", was a mansion owned by the Steuart family from 1795 to 1861, located on the western outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland, at the present-day junction of West Baltimore and Monroe streets. In the first ...

, a mansion built in 1795 and owned by the

Steuart family The Steuart family of Maryland was a prominent political family in the early History of Maryland. Of Scottish descent, the Steuarts have their origins in Perthshire, Scotland. The family grew wealthy in the early 18th century under the patronage o ...

, which had previously been confiscated for use as a military hospital during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. The Sisters used the mansion and its grounds as a convent, selling some of the land for development. The Sisters provided health care to the community. The original mansion was demolished in 1884. In 1919, George Jenkins, a philanthropist, provided funds to open a Roman Catholic hospital, which was built on the grounds of

. The hospital was known as Bon Secours. In 1996, the hospital merged with Liberty Medical Center, which closed in 1999. In 2009, the 125-bed Bon Secours hospital considered closing its inpatient services to cut costs. It faced a number of challenges: 17 percent of its patients are uninsured, twice the average in the city. 90 percent of patient visits were made via the emergency department. Its catchment in West Baltimore has high poverty and unemployment rates, meaning that many people cannot pay for care. The hospital was considering emphasizing preventive and maintenance care through outpatient clinics, to reduce long-term disease.Julekha Dash, "Bon Secours mulls closing inpatient hospital to cut costs"
''Biz Journal'' (Baltimore), 15 June 2009 In 2017, Bon Secours received the lowest possible Medicare patient summary rating of one star. Bon Secours declined to provide data to The Leapfrog Group, an independent hospital review agency. However, the '' Baltimore Sun'' reported that Leapfrog was able to obtain data about Bon Secours from the state of Maryland, which resulted in a rating of "F", the lowest possible rating and a distinction shared by only 15 hospitals in the US. In 2018, the hospital's parent company,

Bon Secours Health System The Bon Secours Health System is the largest private hospital network in Ireland. It was formed in 1993 to co-ordinate the health care facilities in Ireland managed by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Bon Secours. Background The Congregation of th ...

, merged with Mercy Health of Ohio, creating a combined not-for-profit

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

health system (Bon Secours Mercy Health) that included 43 hospitals in seven states. The two systems retained their pre-merger names and branding. Less than six months after the merger with Mercy,

announced plans to acquire Baltimore's Bon Secours Hospital. LifeBridge is a non-profit health system that operates several medical institutions in and around Baltimore. LifeBridge took over the hospital's operations on November 1, 2019. On December 17, 2019, the hospital changed its name to Grace Medical Center, ending one hundred years of association with the Sisters of Bon Secours. The Sisters of Bon Secours continued to provide social services in Baltimore through Bon Secours Community Works, a separate organization that was spun off from the hospital several years before the sale.

References

{{authority control Bon Secours Sisters French-American culture in Baltimore Hospitals in Baltimore Catholic hospitals in North America Catholic Church in Maryland Catholic health care

History

See also

References