Church home and hospital: where caring is part of the cure

For 137 years, Church Home and Hospital has been providing high quality health care to the poor, the elderly, and the sick living in the eastern Baltimore metropolitan area. The institution is unusual in many ways, not the least of which is the loyalty of its staff. Prime examples of this loyalty are T.G. Whedbee, Jr., the hospital's president and chief executive officer, who is retiring this year after nearly three decades with Church Home and Hospital, and Jose M. Yosuico, M.D., former chief of staff and past Med Chi president, who has been associated with the institution he loves for 40 years. This dynamic and innovative institution, which made a commitment to serve its urban neighbors when other medical facilities fled to the suburbs, was the first in the state to establish a hospice, an intensive care unit, a residence for patients with Alzheimer's disease, a satellite urgent-care center, and a patient care program based on severity of illness. These are only a few of the many creative programs that the hospital has implemented over the years to enhance patient care--programs that have served as models for hospitals across the nation.