* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: President Rawlings-Blake
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
title
Informational Hearing - Bon Secours Baltimore Health Systems
FOR the purpose of inviting the CEO of Bon Secours Baltimore Health Systems to share with the City Council the current operational and fiscal status of the health and social services corporation; and the forecast for the future continuation of delivery of health care and human services to the some of the most needy residents of Baltimore City.
body
Recitals
The CEO’s message is: “Bon Secours Baltimore Health System is part of a national health corporation sponsored by Bon Secours Ministries that strives to fulfill the mission of the sisters of Bon Secours to help people and communities to health and wholeness by providing compassionate, quality healthcare and being “good help” to all in need in West Baltimore, with special concern for the poor and dying. Our mission empowers us to embrace physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of individuals and communities as we help them achieve wholeness.”
The historic Bon Secours Hospital, which has 142 acute care beds, has deep roots in West Baltimore in a community whose institutions have vanished – Bon Secours took over West Baltimore’s failing Liberty Medical Center in 1996. Liberty Medical Center was the outgrowth of the former Provident Hospital, an institution in Baltimore and once the only Baltimore City hospital that trained black nurses and doctors.
Media reports that Bon Secours officials were asking the State for $5 million in April 2009, to keep the hospital afloat for a year while a new strategy was devised to offer health care to the surrounding community that virtually has no primary care practices and whose residents “clog the emergency room as if it’s their private doctor’s office” were accompanied by reports that the new CEO was working to address inefficiencies in the health care system that had lost $22 million the previous year and was continuing to have problems sustaining a profit in a community where most of its patients are poor, very sick, and without insurance.
The request for State aide came at the same time that the CEO was taking under serious consideration the very real possibility that the hospital might have to consider closure, if unable to achieve financial turnaround. Bon Secours officials also reportedly began a series of meetings with neighboring hospitals, health care leaders, and community advocates to discuss a new health care model for the community that will focus on the community’s most pressing needs – primary care and assisting patients with chronic medical problems to help manage their diseases.
Bon Secours is a vital part of the community it serves, offering services to residents that include some of the City’s sickest citizens, with high rates of heart disease, diabetes, AIDS and infant mortality. In the emergency room, a diverse population is cared for – from people with chronic diabetes, renal failure, and asthma to drug addicts, psychiatric patients, and the homeless who converge on the waiting room seeking shelter from the cold or heat.
In carrying out its mission of eight core values: Respect, Justice, Integrity, Stewardship, Innovation, Compassion, Quality, and Growth, the Bon Secours Baltimore Health Systems has rendered compassionate care to a community that has little, if any, alternatives for meeting the health and social needs of its residents. It is imperative that a continuum of care be maintained for the people of this West Baltimore neighborhood – whether by retaining Bon Secours or by finding a viable alternative.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That the CEO of Bon Secours Baltimore Health Systems is invited to share with the City Council the current operational and fiscal status of the health and social services corporation; and the forecast for the future continuation of delivery of health care and human services to the some of the most needy residents of Baltimore City.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Mayor, the CEO of Bon Secours Baltimore Health Systems, the Baltimore City Health Commissioner, the Director of Planning, the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods, and the Mayor’s Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
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