about us
our background
Bon Secours Health System is a $3.3 billion not-for-profit Catholic health system sponsored by Bon Secours Ministries. Headquartered in Marriottsville, Maryland, the system owns, manages, or joint ventures 19 acute-care hospitals, one psychiatric hospital, five nursing care facilities, four assisted living facilities, and 14 home care and hospice services.
More than 22,000 Bon Secours employees help people in six states, primarily on the East Coast.
history of Bon Secours Health System
In 1881, the first three Sisters of Bon Secours arrived in the United States to care for those who were sick and dying in their homes in Baltimore, Maryland. The Sisters of Bon Secours in the United States established their first hospital in Baltimore in 1919. By 1980, the Sisters had established or assumed responsibility for several Catholic hospitals, long-term care facilities and other health care services. The Bon Secours Health System was formed in 1983 by the Sisters of Bon Secours to provide skilled, unified management and professional resources for all their health care operations while preserving their Catholic tradition of providing quality care to all, especially to those who are poor, sick and dying.
Since 1983, through acquisitions and joint ventures with other religious and non-sectarian organizations, the system has added facilities in several communities – now including not only Baltimore, but also Charleston and Greenville, South Carolina; Portsmouth, Richmond, Norfolk, and Newport News, Virginia; Suffern, Riverdale, Warwick, and Port Jervis, New York; Ashland, Kentucky; and St. Petersburg, Florida.
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.
