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By Melissa Lauber*
7:00 A.M. EST Nov. 22, 2010 | BALTIMORE (UMNS)
The United Methodist Church and Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington
just announced the creation of a $75 million fund that will provide
grants to churches
and faith-based organizations providing health care to the poor and marginalized.
A UMNS photo courtesy of Melissa Lauber.
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In a move to ensure that the United Methodist commitment to health
care for all people is preserved in the nation’s capital, a $75 million
fund is being established by Sibley Memorial Hospital and Johns Hopkins
Medicine.
The Jane Bancroft Robinson Foundation – named after a Methodist
deaconess – will be administered by an independent board of directors,
which includes a majority of United Methodists. The board will award
grants to congregations and faith-based organizations providing health
care to the poor and marginalized.
The foundation was championed by Sibley president Robert Sloan and
Washington Area Bishop John Schol, who serves on the hospital’s board of
directors. The United Methodist Women's Division board of directors
also voted to approve the affiliation.
The hospital traces its heritage back to 1890, when Methodist women
from the Home Mission Society – the predecessor to United Methodist
Women – started the Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School for
Deaconesses and Missionaries. The mission of the school was to train
nurses. In 1894, with a $10,000 grant provided by William J. Sibley, a
member of Foundry Methodist Church, Sibley Hospital was constructed to
give the nurses a clinical setting to practice their skills and serve a
growing population in Washington, D.C. In 1944, the Women's Home
Missionary Society deeded the original property to Sibley Hospital, and
the hospital later moved to its current location as a part of a
redevelopment land swap.
United Methodist legacy
“In the late 1800s, United Methodists were builders. Their faith and
labors constructed colleges, homes for the aged, orphanages and
hospitals,” Schol said. “In 1881, Methodists opened Maryland General
Hospital in Baltimore. In 1895, Sibley was opened. That is our legacy.
Today we build on that as United Methodists create a new kind of mission
that creates innovative partnerships of possibility.”
United Methodists have always had an active voice in the operations
of the 328-bed community hospital in northwest Washington. When Sibley
Memorial began negotiations to join Johns Hopkins Medicine, a $6 billion
integrated global health enterprise headquartered in Baltimore, Schol
insisted that Sibley’s legacy of caring for the marginalized be part of
the integration plan.
“The bishop was absolutely instrumental in establishing the
foundation,” said Dale Hoscheit, who has served on the Sibley board for
36 years. “He’s allowed us to continue to build, in meaningful ways,
upon what was created at a grassroots level.”
Distinct from the day-to-day operations of the hospital, the Jane
Bancroft Robinson Foundation will allow for more focused efforts that
carry on the Methodist tradition of caring, said Edward J. Miller Jr.,
chairman of the Sibley board. “This is a huge opportunity for Sibley.
It’s a huge opportunity for Johns Hopkins Medicine and it’s a huge
opportunity for The (United) Methodist Church.”
‘It’s a faith-like-a-mustard-seed story’
In remarks at the celebration of the integration of Sibley Hospital
and Hopkins Medicine on Nov. 8, Bishop Schol evoked the words of God
that were relayed by the prophet Isaiah: “I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
Mrs. George O. Robinson.
A web-only photo courtesy
of Melissa Lauber.
In addition to the Foundation, which “will address the systemic
issues related to the physical, emotional and spiritual health needs of
the poor,” the joining of Sibley and Hopkins will carry health care in
Washington to new levels of excellence, the bishop said.
While day-to-day operations at Sibley are not expected to change,
Miller said, the partnership will allow both organizations to better
address the changes in the U.S. health-care system, including economic
pressures.
The partnership is expected to give Hopkins increased access to a
patient base in the nation’s capital and open Hopkins’ extension
research facilities and other resources to the Sibley community. Some
preliminary plans also call for a program that offers state-of-the-art
cancer care at Sibley.
“We face a new era that will bring major reforms and demands for more
coordinated and efficient ways of delivering care, said Steven J.
Thompson, senior vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine.
“Increasingly, our decisions on how best to accommodate these changes
must be based on sound and practical strategies. What we must never lose
sight of during these turbulent times is that every decision we make
has to be in the best interest of our patients and the communities we
serve.”
“It’s a faith-like-a-mustard-seed story,” said Rene Carter, a Sibley
board member and member of Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington.
“Those women started with a vision, they started small and look how it
has grown. They were brave enough to act, to reach out. That’s our
heritage.”
*Lauber is editor of UM Connection, the newspaper of the Baltimore-Washington Conference.
News media contact: Joey Butler, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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