Drawing inspiration from the pioneering women and community leaders who helped establish the Hospital in 1875, Lawrence General has remained focused throughout its history to serve the community as a private, not-for-profit acute care hospital.

The Hospital’s physicians and caregivers offer treatment to all patients, regardless of race, color, creed, or national origin. Every member of the clinical team works to assure the quality and level of care the Hospital provides, supporting community education and research to improve the health of the Merrimack Valley and its citizens.

To achieve the highest levels of quality and patient satisfaction, the Hospital’s philosophy of care focuses around these four core values:

Quality
The Hospital continually strives for excellence in all areas of patient care, enabled through an ongoing quality improvement process.

Integrity
The Hospital builds honest and ethical relationships.

Compassion
The Hospital, through its physicians and caregivers, offers care to address each patient’s unique physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

Service
The Hospital goes the extra mile to provide a level of medical care and customer service that exceeds the expectations of our patients and visitors.

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Lawrence General’s senior leadership team brings many years of experience in all facets of healthcare administration to the Hospital and its programs. With pleasure we present Lawrence General Hospital Management Profiles:

Joseph S. McManus
President and Chief Executive Officer

Joseph S. McManus, President and Chief Executive Officer, was named 2003 Executive of the Year by the American College of Healthcare Executives in Massachusetts. He earned their prestigious Regents’ Award for his role in improving primary care for those without access to it in Lawrence. LGH’s President and CEO for the past 16 years, Mr. McManus joined the hospital in 1977 as assistant director. He was previously assistant executive director of the Robert B. Brigham Hospital, administrator with Bridgeport Model Cities Program and administrative resident at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston. Mr. McManus received a Master of Public Health degree from Yale University School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Connecticut State College. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the Family Service Association of Greater Lawrence and a director with the Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council. He is past Chairman of the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce, a Diplomate of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a member of the Healthcare Management Association of MA, the Hospital Financial Management Association and the Massachusetts Public Health Association. He is the recipient of numerous honors including the Healthcare Management Association’s award for his contributions to healthcare, the Boy Scouts Yankee Clipper Council distinguished citizen award, and the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce’s highest honor, the Wilkinson Good Citizenship Award.

Gerard J. Foley
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Gerard J. Foley’s career at LGH has encompassed over 20 years beginning in 1977. In 1988, Mr. Foley was named Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that he was vice president for clinical services at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. Mr. Foley holds a Juris Doctor degree from Suffolk University Law School, a Master of Public Health degree from Yale University School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Holy Cross College. Mr. Foley is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He is active in professional and community organizations and was past President of the Healthcare Management Association of Massachusetts.

Calvin M. Johnson
Vice President, Professional Services

Calvin M. Johnson has been the Vice President of Professional Services at Lawrence General Hospital since 1984. Before coming to LGH, he managed medical and ambulatory programs at Children’s Hospital and was executive director of Area II Home Care for Senior Citizens in Boston. Mr. Johnson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Studies from Harvard College and was awarded a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School. He received an MBA in healthcare management from Boston University Graduate School. A member of both the Healthcare Management Association of Massachusetts and the American College of Healthcare Executives, Mr. Johnson serves on the Board of Directors of Merrimack Valley Health Services, Inc..

Cynthia O. Phelan
Vice President, Human Resources

Cynthia O. Phelan began her career as an LGH personnel assistant in 1978 and consistently received human resource promotions. She held the position of employment manager before becoming director of the department in 1989. She was named Vice President of Human Resources in 2000. Ms. Phelan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and a Master of Business Administration degree from Rivier College. She is part of the Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council Partnership and the YWCA Academy of Women. A member of the Merrimack Valley Hospital/Education Collaborative, Ms. Phelan also served as program committee chairperson of the MA Healthcare Human Resources Association.

Judith Ryan
Vice President, Nursing and Patient Care

Judith Ryan joined the staff of LGH in 1974 as a critical care nurse and steadily assumed nursing management responsibilities, including nursing coordinator of staffing and critical care and associate director of nursing systems. She was named to her current position, Vice President of Nursing and Patient Care, in 1990. Ms. Ryan obtained a Registered Nurse degree from Community General Hospital of Greater Syracuse, a Bachelor of Science degree from Lesley College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Rivier College. Her community outreach includes roles with Kiwanis International, Mental Health Resources and the YWCA. She is a member of the American Organization of Nurse Executives, the Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives and the American College of Healthcare Executives.

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• First hospital in Massachusetts to become a Level III Trauma Center, based on guidelines established by the American College of Surgeons.
  
• First and only Advanced Life Support unit in the region, providing paramedic first response services since 1987.
  
• Received top award in Clinical Effectiveness from the VHA Northeast, Inc. hospital consortium, for creating a comprehensive protocol for the administration and management of the blood-thinner Coumadin.
  
• First Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (S.A.N.E.) program in Massachusetts, providing specially trained Emergency Department nurses, on call 24 hours a day, to care for victims of rape and sexual assault.
  
• Among only 25% of hospitals nationwide with a community Cancer Care program certified by the American College of Surgeons.
  
• Emergency Department staff far exceed the national average in the administration of clot-busting medications to help save the lives of heart attack victims.
  
• First hospital in New England to offer a state-of-the-art Interventional Radiology suite.
  
• First in the area to introduce a comprehensive Asthma Management program to reduce hospitalizations of area youth.

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To provide patients with a comprehensive level of care, including specialty areas, Lawrence General collaborates with other hospitals, community health agencies, and regional medical centers to bring all levels of clinical expertise and technology to area residents at the Hospital. These linkages support clinicians by offering resources for consultation and collaboration, enabling them to deliver care closer to the home for patients.

MassGeneral Hospital for Children
Pediatric After Hours Referral Center
Pediatric Cardiology

Tufts-New England Medical Center—Floating Hospital for Children
Level II Special Care Nursery—24-hour Neonatology Coverage
Maternal/Fetal Health Program
Pediatric Cardiology

Greater Lawrence Family Health Center - Lawrence Family Practice Residency
Three-year Residency Program in Family Medicine

Northeast Emergency Medical Services, Inc.
Central Medical Emergency Direction (C-MED) for Massachusetts - Region III

Merrimack Valley Health Services, Inc.
Regional Consortium for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Greater Lawrence Mental Health Center
Emergency Psychiatric Services

Commonwealth Hematology-Oncology, PC
Outpatient Cancer Care/Chemotherapy

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The Greater Lawrence Family Health Center and the Hospital share an important constituency. People receive primary care at the Health Center and are referred to Lawrence General for acute care and special procedures. In turn, Hospital clinicians refer patients receiving acute care to the Center if they need a primary care provider. All treatment is provided regardless of ability to pay.

During the year, 34,000 patients from the Health Center made 129,000 medical visits to its clinics. These include: school-based health centers, homeless shelters, and a family planning office, in addition to its acute care facilities. Its physicians made more than 9,200 hospital visits and its geriatric care staff made 1,600 nursing home visits. More than 4,600 visits provided case management services and nearly 2,700 visits involved nutritional counseling. Health Center physicians delivered 638 babies in 2002; many of these infants’ families are at high risk. The Health Center’s maternal/child health program has contributed to a dramatic decrease in the infant mortality rate in Lawrence and maximized positive birth outcomes.

The Hospital and Health Center have formed a teaching collaboration, through the Lawrence Family Practice Residency Program. Candidates for the competitive three-year program are top medical graduates, seeking to train in family medicine, who have demonstrated a commitment to serving less fortunate populations. In 2002, the residency program graduated its seventh class, and welcomed its tenth class of first-year residents - the Class of 2005. This raised the total number of participants over the life of the program to 77. To date, an estimated one-third of the graduates have chosen to stay and practice in Lawrence, and have joined the Hospital’s medical staff. Residents are either bilingual or take intensive courses in Spanish.

In 2002 Lawrence General provided substantial support to the Lawrence Family Practice Residency Program for salaries, capital outlays, space and service, not including the significant costs in time spent by physicians, nurses, nutritionists, social workers and technologists in educating and training resident physicians. Over 200 of the Hospital’s medical staff members teach residents in their offices, in lectures, and on rounds.

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A Region’s Need for Health Services
Formed from parcels of land from the neighboring towns of Andover and Methuen, the industrial mill city of Lawrence, Massachusetts was charted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1849. Its location on the Merrimack River provided plentiful hydroelectric power for the textile and other manufacturing industries that, at the peak of the city’s development, employed more than 100,000 workers.

Many of those working in the mills immigrated to the city from other countries, searching for a better life and opportunities for themselves and their families. As this expanding labor force fueled population growth in the late 19th century, the city and surrounding communities in the Merrimack Valley area lacked both facilities and organized resources to provide medical care to their residents. Without basic health care, and working in industrial occupations with a high risk for injury, the need for a long-term solution to the region’s health needs intensified. Realizing this, the Lawrence Provident Association and the Lawrence City Missionary began encouraging the creation of a City Hospital Fund to construct a permanent hospital.

The Birth of Lawrence General Hospital
In 1875, a group of concerned women, active in Lawrence’s churches, and the wives of the city’s prominent businessmen, established the Ladies’ Union Charitable Society. The group’s objectives were to improve the lives of the city’s workers through good works and social assistance. To this end, the group’s initial efforts centered on establishing a ‘day nursery’ to care for the workers’ sick children, whose mothers, unable to miss work out of financial necessity, could not care for them during the day.

The day nursery, created “to care for the children of the Poor, during the absence of their parents at work,” opened with considerable demand for its services. This early achievement encouraged the Society to focus on the larger goal of establishing a hospital in Lawrence, and following an outbreak of scarlet fever in 1877, the group opened an Invalids’ Home on Montgomery Street. Further realizing the need for these services, the Society constructed a three-story brick building on Methuen Street that combined both of their services in one location, and changed the new facility’s name from “Home” to “Hospital.” Following the construction of an annex to the building in 1886, the Society officially changed its name to the Lawrence General Hospital.

To establish the staff of professionally trained nurses that were needed to operate a formal hospital, The Ladies’ Charitable Union Society established a Training School for Nurses in 1882, considered an ambitious program for a community hospital during that time. The Lawrence General School of Nursing provided clinical instruction in nursing until 1977, and its 1,500 alumnae have played a vital role in the Hospital’s patient care and in supporting the health of the entire region. Many of the School’s graduates continue to serve as clinicians and Hospital administrators today.

The demand for services at the new Lawrence General Hospital increased throughout the last decade of the 19th century, as the region’s population and its acceptance of modern medicine and hospital care continued to grow. In 1899, the need for more expansive facilities was answered when industrialist William A. Russell, founder of the International Paper Company, made a bequest to the Society of his 11-acre Prospect Hill estate, along with the necessary funds to renovate the home for a new Hospital. When construction finished on the site in 1902, Lawrence General had a modern facility that laid the foundation for its role in the health of the community over the next century and beyond.

Providing Care for the 21st Century
Over the last 100 years, the Hospital’s physical stature and technology has grown with the support of individuals, businesses, and community groups. The Lamprey addition in 1941 launched this expansion, followed shortly after by the Stevens Building in 1958. Modernization continued with the Hamblet Building in 1963, and the new Russell Building, named in honor of the original structure, completed the current physical plant in 1972. Over the last three decades, several internal renovations have facilitated new technology and functional requirements, to keep the Hospital in line with emerging clinical demands and the patient needs of 21st century medicine.

Historical information from “Mill Owners and Missionaries: A History of Lawrence General Hospital.” by Thomas W. Leavitt, 1975.

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Lawrence General commits to improving the health of Lawrence and surrounding communities through a comprehensive Community Benefits program. Ongoing planning and review by a multidisciplinary Hospital team identifies key regional health needs, and provides financial resources to address them, by means of direct patient care to individuals and sponsorships to local programs and agencies.

In 2001, the Hospital provided $5,952,000 for these efforts, including $4,161,000 in individual charity care, and $1,791,000 to support prevention efforts and community partnerships. This commitment includes support for the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, providing access to primary care with a focus on the needs of the region’s underserved population.

To support preventative medicine in the community, the Hospital collaborates with the Health Center through the Lawrence Family Practice Residency Program, training medical residents who dedicate their training to providing primary care to less fortunate populations, and increasing the pool of primary physicians serving the region.

In addition, the program supports such statewide efforts as the Women’s Health Network program of the Department of Public Health.

A report detailing the Hospital’s investment in community programs is available online from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s web site. If you would like to read the Hospital’s full Community Benefits Report, you can go to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General web site www.ago.state.ma.us and select health/communitybenefits

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