Reaching out to the community: St. Vincent’s St. Clair hosted its first community health fair at the new facility in September 2012. Pictured, dermatologist Elena Llivina, MD greets visitors to her booth. The hospital is dedicated to meeting the needs of the community through its facility and surrounding health system.

It might be the story of the decade: a new hospital that will bring state-of-the-art healthcare and resources to this area for years to come.

“When you think about this hospital, it’s truly a community partnership and effort,” said Evan Ray, FACHE, as President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Rural Hospital Operations for St. Vincent’s, who was appointed to his position last August. “It’s more than St. Vincent’s, it’s the community that brought this together.”

The hospital opened in December of 2011 and is a partnership between St. Clair County, the St. Clair Economic Development Council, the City of Pell City, the St. Clair County Health Authority and St. Vincent’s Hospital Systems.

Though it’s new, St. Vincent’s St. Clair is already expanding its resources available to the community.

Making sure it takes care of patients in the community in different locations throughout this area is part of the St. Vincent’s plan. It ensures it will take care of the patients not just in a hospital stay, but also a pre-hospital admission or post hospital discharge. “We have any number of physicians across the health system that work not only in the county but in the seven-county, greater Birmingham area,” Ray said.

There are many St. Vincent’s Health System outlets throughout the area, devoted to serving the community.

St. Vincent’s Health System is dedicated to spiritually centered, holistic care that sustains and improves the health of individuals and communities. St. Vincent’s Health System is a health ministry of Ascension Health.

St. Vincent’s St. Clair now has a physician’s plaza and has added durable medical equipment, an advanced wound center and a sleep diagnostic center.

Specialists on the medical staff include: endocrinology, ear nose and throat specialists, gasterology, general surgery, nephrology, neurology, OB/GYN and ophthalmology.

Certain specialties offered are based on area needs and those of specialists who are coming to St. Vincent’s St. Clair. “Whatever ails you, we have a doctor for that. Almost any issue that the community is experiencing, we have physicians on the medical staff or services within the hospital that we can deliver care for their issues. With the new hospital, there’s been a lot of technology expansion, and there’s been a lot of specialty physician expansion. It’s going to be rare if we can’t assist patients in whatever challenges there might be.”

In the future the hospital hopes to continue growth. “Today we’re a 40 bed hospital, and we’re full almost every day,” Ray said. He said the goal is to grow within the next three-to-five years to expand the footprint to grow the number of patients it is serving and will be able to treat. “We look to continue to grow the hospital as we continue to grow as a community.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the hospital’s performance after the first year of operation—really across the board. If you look at the quality outcomes, the patient satisfaction and customer service scores we have received and volume growth in the community interest and support, we couldn’t be more pleased as a hospital at how it’s operated.”

For more information about St. Vincent’s Health System, please log onto:

http://stvhs.com/stclair

or call (205) 814-2342.