Mercy Health System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mercy Health System is a non-profit health care provider and hospital based in Janesville, Wisconsin, with over 50 facilities in over 20 communities across a seven-county area including parts of Illinois.

1 History
2 Facilities
- 2.1 Acute-care hospitals
- 2.2 Medical & specialty centers
3 External links

[edit] History

The original Janesville City Hospital was founded in 1883 by Dr. Henry Palmer, a Civil War surgeon general who had trained Daniel Hale Williams, and later named Palmer Memorial Hospital and run by his son Dr. William Palmer. It was then bought by the Sisters of Mercy in Chicago who renamed it Mercy Hospital, though it would eventually shed these ties.

The 1980s saw an increasingly competitive environment, and in 1989, Mercy selected Javon R. Bea as its CEO. Under Bea the Mercy Health System grew significantly, achieving national recognition for innovation and aggressive growth.

Mercy had planned to build a third major hospital facility in Crystal Lake, Illinois to serve the northwest suburbs of Chicago. A Certificate of Need for a 70-bed facility was approved by the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board in 2004, but thrown out by a judge in 2005[1] as part of a lawsuit filed by the established regional provider Centegra.[2] A series of articles in Chicago papers detailed alleged breaches of ethics in Mercy's dealings with the Illinois board.[3] According to an indictment by the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois, one board member received a kickback of $1.5 million from a construction executive in return for lobbying other members of the board, among other unrelated improprieties.[4] The hospital insists that it always acted properly, and no Mercy employees have been charged. Mercy has scaled back its planned facility and will not appeal the Certificate of Need.

In 1998, Modern Healthcare magazine ranked Mercy at the top of its "Fastest Fifty", ranking providers by net patient revenue growth (1991-1996). In 2006, Mercy Health System was ranked first in the nation for providing employment options for people over age 50 by the AARP.[5] It was also ranked 18th of the Top 100 Integrated Health Networks for 2006 by Modern Healthcare magazine, and received an award for 2006 from the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) green hospitals program.[6] Working Mother magazine listed Mercy among its 100 Best Companies for 2006 for its family-friendly employment policies, which include flexible scheduling, extended leave, workforce re-entry, and affordable day-care.[7]