Hospital partner expands its mission
Group that owns half of Christus St. Vincent changes name, pledges $2M in grants
The Santa Fe organization that owns half of Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center has changed its name and expanded its mission.
SVHsupport on Thursday unveiled its new name: Anchorum St. Vincent.
With the name change, the nonprofit plots a course for itself as a “convener” and “catalyst,” bringing together “likeminded philanthropic investors, nonprofits, community members and other partners” to improve a broader concept of community health.
“It’s the scale,” said Earl Potter, an attorney, businessman and Anchorum St. Vincent board chairman. “Our focus
has been on providing excellent care within the confines of the regional medical center and all of its clinics. Now the focus is going to be much broader, on programs and efforts being made in the community.”
The board agreed on the new name, Anchorum, because “we’re basically an anchor organization,” said Peter Bastone, president and CEO of Anchorum St. Vincent. The organization also manages a large endowment fund and has made $25 million in grants since 2007.
The announcement Thursday comes with a pledge of $2 million from Anchorum St. Vincent for grants over the next three years in four key areas, said Jerry Jones, chief financial officer. Another $20 million is pledged for investments in those areas on a match or partnership basis.
Jones said the four key areas are: adult behavioral health and senior health and wellness, health innovation and technology and economic development, new and existing health care facilities, and improving health care and access.
As SVHsupport, the organization suffered from an identity problem, said Lillian Montoya, president and CEO of Christus St. Vincent. Few really knew what SVHsupport was or what it did or that it held an ownership stake in the hospital on St. Michael’s Drive.
“So they’re going from being a quiet partner that invested in big things like the Frost Pavilion, where they’ve made a pretty substantial coinvestment,” Montoya said, “to a much larger scope and much larger community impact, outside the hospital setting.”
The Frost Pavilion, a $44 million project that opened last fall, added 36 new private rooms to the hospital.
The former SVHsupport also provided funding for inhouse programs such as Clinician-Directed Performance Improvement, a staff-driven project to improve patient safety, and down payment assistance through Homewise for health care providers seeking to purchase a home.
It also funded a scholarship program for students at Capital High School seeking careers in medicine, Montoya said.
The name change comes on the 10th anniversary of the nonprofit’s partnership with Christus Health System, a Catholic-based nonprofit based in Irving, Texas, that operates medical centers in four states. St. Vincent is the sole Christus facility with shared ownership.
“Since 2007, basically since the partnership was developed, not one penny has left Santa Fe,” Bastone said. “It hasn’t gone to Dallas. It’s stayed right here and been reinvested with us.”