St. Vincent’s Medical Center

A  Stratford, Conn., health center opened by St. Vincent’s Medical Center  (based in Bridgeport, Conn.) shows how hospitals are increasingly moving their services  to outpatient facilities away from the inpatient mother ship.

The new  center already includes an urgent-care center,  cardiac and primary-care service; a wound-care center and cardiology testing facility will open in the  Stratford building soon. But what particularly intrigued us at Cambridge Management Group was that  space was set aside on the second floor for community groups to meet.  CMG has been working, particularly  in  Oregon,  on such community-health projects.

Hospitals are re-inventing themselves as the definition of health moves well beyond just medical care to encompass a wide range of services to serve the welfare of entire geographic regions.

“We’re bringing St. Vincent’s out into the community rather than making people come to us,” Dianne Auger, senior vice president at St. Vincent’s Health Services, told The Stamford Advocate.

Perhaps the creation of such centers will, in a modest way, re-energize Americans’ sense of civic-mindedness that has declined so much in recent years with the self-absorption encouraged by social media and the decline of close family ties.