about us
our background
Headquartered in Marriottsville, Maryland, Bon Secours Health System is a $2.9 billion not-for-profit Catholic health system that owns, manages or joint ventures 18 acute-care hospitals, one psychiatric hospital, five nursing care facilities, four assisted living facilities and 14 home care and hospice programs. More than 21,000 Bon Secours employees help people in seven states, primarily on the East Coast.
history of Bon Secours Health System
In 1919, The Sisters of Bon Secours established their first hospital in Baltimore and opened their second in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, in 1945. By 1980, the sisters had established or assumed responsibility for several Catholic hospitals, long-term care facilities and other health care services. The system began as a loose affiliation of these facilities and served primarily as a resource center.
The Bon Secours Health System was formed in 1983 to provide skilled, unified management and professional resources for all Bon Secours health care operations while preserving Bon Secours' Catholic tradition of providing quality care to all, especially those who are poor and sick.
Since 1983, the system has added facilities in Charleston and Greenville, South Carolina; Portsmouth, Richmond, Norfolk, and Newport News, Virginia; St. Petersburg, Florida; Altoona, Pennsylvania; Riverdale, Suffern, Warwick and Port Jervis, New York; and Ashland, Kentucky, through acquisitions and joint ventures with other religious and non-sectarian organizations.
Today, Bon Secours Health System is committed to serving and providing “Good Help to Those in Need®” in acute, long-term care, ambulatory, assisted living, home care and community health facilities in seven states.
sponsorship
The Sisters of Bon Secours sponsored Bon Secours facilities since 1919 when the Bon Secours Hospital opened in Baltimore. Between 1983 and 2006, the sisters were the sole sponsoring entity for Bon Secours Health System.
In 2006, the Vatican approved the formation of Bon Secours Ministries as the sponsor of Bon Secours Health System. Although the Sisters of Bon Secours, USA, were the sponsors for the health system for 23 years, the new model enables them to share sponsorship of the health system with lay leaders. Bringing on leaders other than Sisters of Bon Secours into the role of sponsorship helps ensure the continuance of the sisters’ Catholic health ministry into the future.
Over the years, other congregations of women religious joined with the Sisters of Bon Secours to expand the healing ministry of Jesus and the Catholic Church. In these situations, the Bon Secours Ministries and the other religious congregations are considered co-sponsors, sharing sponsorship responsibilities. Today, these co-sponsoring congregations are the Bernardine Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, Newport News, Virginia, and the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, New Jersey, Suffern, New York.
