Reflecting on 125 Years of Serving the Phoenix Community

A letter from the hospital's president to all employees

March 19, 2020

Dear Employees,

It was 125 years ago today that the Sisters of Mercy founded St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center to care for tuberculosis patients. Our founding Sisters answered a call of faith and action.Today, on St. Joseph’s 125th anniversary, we continue to answer the call of faith and action by caring for our community during the COVID-19 pandemic. How proud and grateful our founding Sisters would be to know that we carry on their important mission.

Thank you for the care, dedication, and service that you are providing during this difficult time. We appreciate your patience and unwavering commitment to our community as we work to meet the needs of the evolving situation with COVID-19. As you may know, our Incident Command Center was activated to respond to CDC guidelines, as well as to address the challenges and new standard operating procedures required under this state of emergency. Examples of some of the changes that have been implemented include: changes in visitation, creation of a new outdoor ED triage, activation of a labor pool, adjustments to elective care, and enacted PPE conservation protocols. The Incident Command Center team is also working to ensure that we have the staffing, equipment, and ancillary services that are needed to support our patients, employees, and community during this crisis.

This is an important milestone year, and I encourage you to reflect on your tremendous contributions to our mission. In addition, I want to take a moment to thank you and your family for the sacrifices you are making in order to care for our community. I’m inspired by our team’s flexibility, resilience, and collaboration. And, I am honored to work alongside each of you. In the coming days, I’ll be visiting departments and conducting mobile town halls at St. Joseph’s, St. Joseph’s Westgate, and the Cancer Center to answer your questions.

To honor our hospital’s anniversary, we have several special events planned. Unfortunately, and based on CDC guidelines, we will need to postpone those plans until later this year.

Happy anniversary! Your support, expertise and vision are setting the stage for St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center’s next 125 years.

In faith and action,

Gabrielle Finley-Hazle
President and CEO
St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center
St. Joseph’s Westgate Medical Center

Mass returns to Marian Chapel

St. Joseph's Marian Chapel A Collaborative Mission Committee has been formed to bring together representatives of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, CommonSpirit Health, Creighton University and the Diocese of Phoenix--to serve as a catalyst for ideas and initiatives that will deepen our shared missions and ministries. This is an opportune time for our organizations to come together in an even more meaningful way:

In the midst of COVID-19, those we serve are in need of healthcare, spiritual, social and economic assistance.
This year, St. Joseph’s is celebrating its 125th anniversary.
The Creighton University Health Sciences Campus is quickly taking shape next to our hospital campus.
The Diocese of Phoenix is celebrating its jubilee year, after marking its 50th anniversary in December.

To celebrate the launch of this special partnership, we are pleased to announce that daily mass is returning to St. Joseph’s Marian Chapel for hospital staff, patients and visitors. Because of social distancing, initial masses will be shared on the hospital’s internal TV channel 80, but the public will be welcomed to attend at a future date.