5 / 10
Business View Australia - November-December 2015
The reach of Mercy Health extends to
Victoria, southern New South Wales,
Western Australia, the Australian
Capital Territory and most recently
Queensland. While the organisation
was started by the Sisters of Mercy,
it is now run by lay people who are
continuing the Sisters’ mission
to care for people in need. Mercy
Health employs people from diverse
backgrounds and cultures, but they
are all bound by a common thread,
that of providing the highest degree
of care to residents and clients while
treating them with respect and dignity.
Adjunct
Professor
Stephen
Cornelissen, Group Chief Executive
Officer, describes the inception of
Mercy Health and how it achieved its
current size, “The Sisters set up their
first Victorian hospital in 1920. They
then built a private women’s hospital
in 1934 and then set up a public
women’s hospital in 1971.”
Subsequently Mercy Health expanded
into palliative care, providing services
to help people die in their community
and their home with dignity. Then
they set up another public hospital in
1994 (Werribee Mercy Hospital) and
started providing aged care during the
mid-1990s followed by mental health
services in 1997. In 2003Mercy Health
started providing early parenting