Restructuring opens new doors. Business ventures redirect deflected revenue

To fulfill its mission of caring for the sick and the poor while remaining competitive, St. Vincent's Medical Center, Jacksonville, FL, underwent corporate restructuring in 1983. Three existing entities--the medical center, a skilled nursing facility, and a fund-raising foundation--incorporated under St. Vincent dePaul Community Stewardship Services, Inc. One of the goals was to make optimal use of existing facilities and expertise while also creating channels to redirect deflected revenue to the corporate mission of service to the poor. Among its projects St. Vincent's established 12 ambulatory care facilities; offered use of its laboratory to physicians' offices, nursing homes, and other entities needing fast, high-quality service; developed a mobile magnetic resonance imaging service; created a nurse staffing business; and entered into services-oriented, price-competitive, for-profit operations. By assuming some of the broad-based responsibilities for planning, financing, marketing, and providing administrative and legal support, the parent company has freed the entities under it to concentrate on the jobs they do best: the delivery of healthcare products and services and the generation of referrals to the medical staff and, in turn, to the medical center.