Company Profile
Company Overview
At PeaceHealth, we carry on the healing mission of Jesus Christ by promoting personal and community health, relieving pain and suffering, and treating each person in a loving and caring way. The fulfillment of this Mission is our shared purpose. It drives all that we are and all that we do. To those who embrace the spirit of these words and our commitment to Exceptional Medicine and Compassionate Care, we offer the opportunity to learn and grow as a member of the PeaceHealth family.
Company History
Please click here for a link to PeaceHealth History: http://www.peacehealth.org/SpiritPeacehealth/Story/
A Heritage of Healing
On August 3, 1890, two members of the fledgling Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace left their convent in Newark, New Jersey, bound for Fairhaven, Washington, a remote logging community in the country's far northwest corner. Their charge: to build a hospital to care for loggers, mill workers, fisherman and their families. The opening of St. Joseph hospital ushered in more than a century of Catholic health care ministry in the Pacific Northwest by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace and their lay colleagues. The order's Foundress, Mother Francis Clare, an activist Irish nun whose reformist zeal often put her at odds with Church hierarchy, became internationally known for her work and writing on behalf of women and the poor.
By 1916, the spirit that defined and launched the health care ministry in Fairhaven had grown to include five hospitals in Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia; in 1936 it reached Oregon as well. In the early 1970s, the Sisters decided to form a separate structure to oversee their hospital services in order to more effectively meet the challenges of contemporary health care and partner with qualified laypersons that shared in this important work. The name of the organization was changed to PeaceHealth in 1994 to better reflect the mission and heritage. In March 1997, the health system Board of Trustees received the status as a Private Pontifical Juridic Person to ensure the continuation of the healing ministry as a Catholic health system under lay leadership in service to the communities.
To this day, the religious community remains committed to its Foundress's vision of achieving peace through social justice in its life and ministries. The Sisters have entrusted to their lay colleagues the important mission of carrying on the healing mission of Jesus through exceptional medicine and healing in a gracious and compassionate manner to all those come to PeaceHealth for care.
In Service to Our Communities
In addition to caring for individual patients, PeaceHealth has a strong commitment to improving the health of the communities in which it serves. Among the many collaborative, community health improvement initiatives underway throughout the health system are:
Southeast Alaska
Alaskans for Drug-Free Youth
A grant-funded collaborative program focusing on community education, alcohol and tobacco cessation, and drug prevention and treatment.
Whatcom Region
Hand-in-Hand for Health and Learning
A collaborative project between the hospital and rural schools with the intent of pursuing access to health insurance, a medical home, and increasing access to dental care.
Lower Columbia Region
Healthy Teeth
A community partnership providing dental care for Medicare adults and children in and around Longview, Washington.
Oregon Region
Improve access to medical care for vulnerable populations
Specific programs include Healthy Tomorrows, HIV Alliance, Latino Medical Access Program, Volunteers in Medicine and White Bird Clinic Pharmacy.
Siuslaw Region
Health Career Pathway Collaborative
PeaceHealth has partnered with Siuslaw High School and Lane Community College to establish a 'Health Occupations Career Pathway' that begins with high school sophomores and ends with an Associate Degree in Nursing. The goal is to provide local students the opportunity to complete their nursing education in Florence, while at the same time meet the nurse staffing needs of our local health system.
Extending the PeaceHealth Mission to the World's Most Vulnerable
The El Salvador Health Mission provides the opportunity for PeaceHealth and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace - through volunteer participation of employees and congregational affiliates - to bring human and material resources to people in a country with inadequate health care.
The compelling motivation for the project is two-fold: not only does it help those most in need in an impoverished country, who have little or no access to health services, but it provides a transformational experience for PeaceHealth participants. The champions of the project believe it enriches the soul of our organization by deepening our own self-realization of the PeaceHealth mission. At the same time, the El Salvador Mission is a formal mechanism for providing medical supplies and equipment to meet the health needs of the extreme poor in El Salvador.
"The vision of the El Salvador Medical Mission is large. Guided by a sense of global responsibility, we seek to enrich the soul of our organization. This is realized through the personal experiences of PeaceHealth employees and staff physicians who serve with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace in a third world setting. Upon their return, project volunteers often express a personal need to contribute to the greater good at home."
Chris Phillips, Community Outreach Director,
Whatcom Region, PeaceHealth