With the fall opening of a new replacement hospital in Ireland as well as a business services center in the Philippines, Bon Secours Mercy Health has expanded its global footprint.
Bon Secours Mercy Health as well as its legacy systems and founding sponsors always have had a global presence. The system is building on that precedent in a way that furthers its mission, improves its efficiency and effectiveness, and allows for innovation, say Bon Secours Mercy Health's David Cannady and Dr. Wael Haidar.
Cannady, who is chief strategy officer, says that the health system's growth overseas is in line with its focus since its 2019 formation on expansion and revenue diversification. Haidar, who is president of clinical operations, adds that overseas and domestically the health system has committed to "invest in meeting the access and care needs of the communities that we serve. Our shared services platform allows us to leverage our size and capabilities to provide efficiencies on a global scale."
The health system has 47 hospitals in six U.S. states and Ireland as well as its operations in the Philippines. It employs about 60,000 people.
Midwest Ireland hospital
The hospital that Bon Secours Mercy Health opened in early October is the first new acute care hospital in Ireland in two decades.
Built at a cost of more than $246 million, the private, nonprofit Bon Secours Hospital — Limerick replaces an outmoded facility elsewhere in the city that Bon Secours purchased in 2017.
This new site has 99 inpatient beds, a four-bed special observation unit, 26 endoscopy recovery bays with three procedure rooms, a six-bed ophthalmology unit, a 27-bed surgical unit, a 20-bay day procedures unit with three procedure rooms, a catheterization lab and eight interventional cardiology recovery bays, four operating theaters and a 10-bay hospital assessment unit. The campus also has an ambulatory care hub that provides cardiology, vascular, neurology and other services.
Haidar says the old hospital had fewer beds and was incapable of offering complex services. He notes that the public health system has significant patient waiting lists, prompting many Limerick residents to leave the area to seek care. He says the new facility "addresses gaps in inpatient beds and diagnostic and treatment services in cardiology and neurology" in midwestern Ireland.
Haidar says the new facility "marks a significant advancement in health care infrastructure. It represents a comprehensive redesign and expansion — not merely a relocation." The hospital features an environmentally friendly design with sustainable materials. The facility has energy-efficient lighting and air conditioning and the campus has a charging station for electric vehicles.
With this larger, more advanced facility, Bon Secours Mercy Health is doubling its Limerick-area workforce to about 600.
Bon Secours Hospital — Limerick is part of the Bon Secours Ireland subsystem. That subsystem also has acute care hospitals in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Tralee and a long-term care facility in Cork. Bon Secours Ireland is putting in place an electronic health record to connect the sites.
Bon Secours Ireland traces its origins to 1861, when the Bon Secours sisters expanded their ministry beyond France into Ireland.
Manila business services center
Bon Secours Mercy Health opened its business services center in Manila on Oct. 1.
The location provides back-end corporate functions for the entire system, including human resources, financial services, supply chain management and logistical services. The site has a staff of 200 associates.
The health system renovated an office building to house the business services center, and the space will allow for future growth.
Cannady explains that since the health system's formation, it has looked for ways to standardize how it delivers care, including by centralizing some of its business functions. It engaged EY, formerly Ernst & Young, to evaluate where to locate a service center. That consultancy recommended Manila, where Bon Secours Mercy Health already had a service center supporting its information technology subsidiary, Nordic Global. In addition, Bon Secours Mercy Health has a call center in Manila in partnership with the Teleperformance company.
The consultants said many international businesses have operations in Manila, many residents of the city speak English and are highly educated, and the Philippines generally has a service-oriented culture that would align well with the people-centered culture of Bon Secours Mercy Health. Incidentally, the Filipino population is nearly 80% Catholic. The Bon Secours sisters once had a mission presence in the country, and Bon Secours Mercy Health's Global Ministries provides aid there now.
Life-altering careers
Cannady notes that Bon Secours Mercy Health's board and its ministerial juridic person, Bon Secours Mercy Ministries, engaged in a thorough discernment process before opening the business services center in Manila, weighing the anticipated benefits and risks. He says they prioritized ensuring that employees in both the U.S. and the Philippines would be treated with respect. This included providing support to displaced U.S. employees — many of whom were transferred to other positions in Bon Secours Mercy Health. It also included making sure that wages and conditions in the Philippines honored the workers' dignity and were not exploitive.
Cannady says Bon Secours Mercy Health has been well received in Manila, with local officials warmly welcoming the system during an opening ceremony. A local priest blessed the facility during that event.
Bon Secours Mercy Health's Teleperformance call center in Manila does scheduling for U.S. primary care facilities. When the health system ran that function domestically, it had a 60% employee turnover rate. It's been able to keep a more stable employee base in the Philippines.
Cannady notes that at the Manila business center, the jobs can be life-altering for employees. These are top careers that are great for families, he says.
He says branching out overseas gives Bon Secours Mercy Health access to a new workforce, one that is integrating well into the system.