Sacred Heart Provides Community Services, Economic Benefits

For 90 years, Sacred Heart Health System has lived up to the mission of its founders, the Daughters of Charity, by treating all persons with compassion, dignity and respect, with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable.

In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005, that commitment meant Sacred Heart provided charity care to the sick and poor at an actual cost of $7.5 million to our health system. In addition, we supported other programs that serve the poor such as Medicaid, Escambia Community Clinics and Children’s Medical Services. The net cost to Sacred Heart to provide those services, after reimbursement by governmental and other sources, was approximately $12 million, bringing our total expense on services to the poor to $20 million.

“While Sacred Heart Hospital excels in quality, innovation and technology, we were founded and sustained because of community need,” says Sister Carol Keehan, board chair of Sacred Heart Health System. “Our doors are open to everyone regardless of faith, ethnic background or ability to pay.”

The community benefits provided by Sacred Heart extend far beyond charity care. Sacred Heart also serves the community in many other ways:

Outreach to low income and other vulnerable persons:
* We provide free health screenings to the poor, the elderly and the uninsured through our Mission in Motion mobile health unit that travels throughout Northwest Florida. Services for adults include screenings for blood pressure, anemia, blood sugar, cholesterol, glaucoma, and osteoporosis. Services for children include free physical exams by a physician, and screenings for hearing, vision, and blood pressure.

* We operate a pediatric dental clinic and a pediatric clinic to serve thousands of children from low income families who qualify for Medicaid. If not for these Sacred Heart services, thousands of families could not afford access to needed health care for their children.

* Sacred Heart provides funding for Escambia Community Clinics (ECC), a joint venture owned by Sacred Heart and Baptist Health Care. The clinic in Pensacola provides primary care services to all persons, regardless of their ability to pay. For 2004 ECC saw 28,517 visits of which 17,217 were for the working uninsured poor or the indigent.  This represents 60.3% of all visits.

* We operate the Seton Center for Obsetrics and Gynecology, a service for low-income women. It provides routine and high-risk prenatal care and gynecological services for women of all ages. More than 70 percent of patients are on Medicaid.

* Sacred Heart operates Miracle Camp, a retreat center for persons who have chronic or life-threatening illnesses. Miracle Camp has provides camp experiences for children and adults coping with health conditions such as cancer, hemophilia, epilepsy, diabetes and asthma.

Health education and illness prevention
* We provide health education for the community, with regular classes on topics such as stress management, diabetes management, babysitting, CPR, newborn parenting, smoking cessation and caregiver training for persons caring for family members at home.

* Our SENIORSpirit program offers free monthly seminars in our Greenhut Auditorium on health topics of interest to persons 55 and older.

* Sacred Heart facilitates meetings of support groups and educational classes for persons dealing with cancer, stroke, osteoporosis or heart disease.

* We provide a web site featuring health information for children and teens, parenting advice and information on pregnancy and childbirth.

Economic Benefits
* Sacred Heart Health System has a major economic impact in Northwest Florida. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build and renovate our facilities and to bring advanced medical technology to the communities we serve.

* We are one of the area’s largest employers, providing jobs to more than 4,000 associates. As an employer, we provide good paying jobs and affordable health insurance and other important benefits to our associates.

* Sacred Heart is contributing to the revitalization of downtown Pensacola. We are a partner in a new assisted living apartment complex for senior in downtown Pensacola (Wesley Haven Villas) and we have just rebuilt our Sacred Heart Home Care offices that were damaged by Hurricane Ivan. With the reopening, 90 Home Care employees have returned to working downtown on East Wright Street.

* Sacred Heart is a partner in the regional growth of Northwest Florida. We built a new hospital to improve community access to health care in Walton County, and we have plans for new health care facilities in Pace and Port St. Joe.

Medical Education and Training
* Sacred Heart provides training programs for young physicians training in pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology. We also train medical school students in the third and fourth years of education at Florida State University School of Medicine. Some of these needed physicians remain in Northwest Florida when they complete their training.

* Sacred Heart provides training to nursing students from Pensacola Junior College, University of West Florida, Jefferson Davis Junior College and Pensacola Christian College.

* Sacred Heart serves as a clinical training site for registered nurses who plan to become certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs). We also train respiratory therapists, physical therapists, radiology students and other health workers.

“For 90 years, Sacred Heart has provided such an important array of needed health services to our region,” said Sister Carol. “We provide them because serving our communities in this way is integral to our history, our identity and our mission. It is what we always have done.”