St. Mary Medical Center Sets Superior Standards
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At St. Mary Medical Center, health care is sacred, and personal care is the hospital’s central mission.
“We want every visit to St. Mary Medical Center to be a sacred encounter,” says Randy Bevilacqua, vice president of communications.
Located in beautiful Apple Valley, part of Southern California’s High Desert area, St. Mary is one of 14 St. Joseph Health System member hospitals. St. Joseph’s has a growing reputation for top quality service. In an annual study, area consumers have recognized St. Mary Medical Center as the most preferred hospital in its service area for seven consecutive years.
In addition, for three consecutive years, The Gallup Organization has named St. Mary and the St. Joseph Health System as the Employer of Choice.
“The award is determined based solely on an employee survey,” Bevilacqua explains. That award is significant, he says, because quality customer care drives quality health care.
For more than 50 years, St. Mary has grown with the region. Today, that growth is seen through improvements that include updated cardiac catheterization labs, a chest pain emergency center, a new robotic surgery program, expanded parking facilities and an outpatient surgery center.
“We are the preferred health-care provider in the area and we want to make sure we are able to service our community,” Bevilacqua said.
A highlight of the hospital’s community outreach is its program for the uninsured. The campaign stretches from local elementary schools to churches and beyond, and the mission is to have 100 percent insurance coverage for the High Desert area. To achieve this goal, St. Mary distributes surveys to local schools to help determine which students are without health insurance. Those children are then registered for various health-care insurance programs – programs many families didn’t know were available.
With confidence in the future, St. Mary is currently in the midst of a $10 million capital campaign to raise money for hospital expansion. Future goals include establishing a regional trauma center and building a new facility.
In the next four to seven years, a new, 100-acre campus will be built on the west side of the Victor Valley. The new medical center will offer easy traffic access to I-15, creating a faster route for emergency vehicles to reach the growing Victor Valley community. The 112-bed facility will bridge the gap between the community’s fastest growing area and the area’s fastest growing hospital.
Story by Brandon Lowe
Photo by Ian Curcio
