SSM Health

SSM Health
Type Healthcare provider
Headquarters St. Louis, Missouri
Location
  • 10101 Woodfield Ln.
    St. Louis, Missouri 63132 USA
Services 20 hospitals
President and CEO
Laura S. Kaiser
Staff
33,000+
Website www.ssmhealth.com/system
Formerly called
SSM Health Care

SSM Health is a Catholic, not-for-profit United States health care system with more than 1,600 employed physicians and 33,000 other employees in four states, including Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Missouri. SSM Health is one of the largest employers in the cities it serves.

SSM Health adopted the electronic health record early on, and provides care in a range of settings, including hospitals, pediatric medical centers, outpatient centers, clinics, surgery centers, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, physician offices, emergency centers, rehabilitation facilities, urgent care centers, home care, and hospice.

Based in St. Louis, Mo., SSM Health operates 20 hospitals, and has affiliations with 39 additional hospitals. SSM Health also owns two nursing homes, and has a variety of partnerships with physicians.

In 2013, Dean Health System, a large multi-specialty physician group and health plan, finalized a deal to merge Dean and its subsidiaries, including Dean Health Plan, into SSM Health. The merger became effective on September 1, 2013, after all necessary regulatory approvals were received.

SSM Health is sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary and is one of the largest Catholic hospital systems in the United States.

History of SSM Health

SSM Health traces its roots to 1872, when Mother Mary Odilia Berger and four other sisters came to St. Louis from Germany, after caring for sick and wounded soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War. Facing religious persecution in Germany, they came to the United States. When they arrived in St. Louis they began providing nursing care to people in their own homes. That winter, when a smallpox epidemic hit St. Louis, the sisters cared for the sick and dying. For a short time, people referred to them as the Smallpox Sisters. In 1874, the congregation received its formal name: the Sisters of St. Mary (SSM) from the parish where their convent was located, St. Mary of Victories[1] near the riverfront in St. Louis.

Five years after their arrival in St. Louis, the sisters borrowed $16,000, to open their first hospital, St. Mary’s Infirmary. Almost 60 percent of their patients were unable to pay for their health care services. Account ledgers from this time identify those who were unable to pay for their services as an “ODL,” a designation that stood for “Our Dear Lord’s.” During this time, the sisters relied on God to provide for their needs as they cared for the poor.

Most of the health care facilities that today belong to SSM Health were previously part of a group of hospitals owned by the Sisters of St. Mary and centrally governed, but not centrally managed. In the mid-1980s, the sponsoring congregation decided to reorganize its hospitals into a system of centrally managed health care providers, and SSM Health was created in 1986. Today the system is managed by a team of professionals—both lay and religious—and governed by members of the sponsoring congregation as well as by laypersons from the communities served by its facilities.

In 2012, SSM Health stated that it was 'disappointed with the contraceptive mandate' regarding being legally forced to cover such items by the Affordable Care Act, against Catholic freedom of conscience.[2]

About SSM Health

Headquarters

Service Areas

Locations

Employees

Physicians

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

In 2002, SSM Health became the first health care organization in history to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the highest award for quality in the U.S.

SSM Health Facilities

Missouri

Oklahoma

Wisconsin

Illinois

Notes

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