Welcoming friends and neighbors to Providence Health Care at the Woods

Blog post author Sister Lisa Stallings, right, celebrates her mother Trudy’s birthday with her at Providence Health Care at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in July 2011.

Sisters of Providence have thought of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. as home since Mother Theodore Guerin and her companions established themselves here in 1840. We are happy to open our home in a new way to friends and neighbors from the Wabash Valley and beyond. Providence Health Care (PHC) at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods recently began accepting residents in addition to sisters to our rehabilitation unit in Mother Theodore Hall, as well as to our assisted living area in Lourdes Hall.

I have personal experience of entrusting a loved one to Providence Health Care. Over the years we have, on occasion, accepted as residents in long-term care a few family members of our sisters when circumstances called for it and space allowed. My own mother lived in our memory-care unit for most of the last two years of her life. The care and compassion she received, along with the companionship she experienced from staff and other residents, made her stay here the happiest years of her later life. She was able to receive joy and to share joy with others in a way she had not been able to for quite some time.

We Sisters of Providence are grateful to have this facility, and we are proud both of the facility and its staff. Our rehab department is well-equipped and well-staffed. The aquatic therapy pool, with its lift deck to accommodate limited mobility patients, is considered state of the art. In the past year we received a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and were listed among Indiana’s best nursing facilities by US News and World Report.

Those honors have given some objective measure to our feelings about the facility and the people who work here. However, our day-to-day experience with Providence Health Care — seeing how well the residents are cared for, experiencing the professionalism and compassion of the staff members — are, for, us the most significant source of pride. We trust that if you visit Providence Health Care at the Woods and meet members of our staff, you’ll understand why.

PHC was established as a healthcare corporation sponsored by the Sisters of Providence in 2002. At that time, the entire facility (then known as Karcher Hall) was utilized for the care of our sisters, but from the very beginning we committed ourselves to opening the doors of PHC to others as soon as possible. We are pleased that we are now able to realize our original goal — to extend this health care ministry, to move beyond meeting the needs of our own sisters and to now reach out to others in the community.

Over the two years of my mother’s stay, she and my family experienced the blessings of Providence Health Care first-hand. It is our most sincere hope that others will experience those same blessings of hope and healing as patients in our new post-acute unit.

For more information about Providence Health Care at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods call 812-535-4001 or e-mail jbland@spsmw.org.