Book presentation 'From Care for the Sick to Health Care' in response to fifty years of Maria Middelares General Hospital, a non-profit organisation

The book 'From Care for the Sick to Health Care' takes you through an illustrated trip through time, starting around the year 1200, when the Ghent family turned their residences into a hospital to care for the sick, those in need and travelers. No one would have imagined that simple care for the sick would evolve over the next eight hundred years into professional, highly technological medical health care, which is what the Maria Middelares General Hospital currently provides to the community. Over this long trajectory over time, a Ghent congregation of Cistercian sisters played a vital role that should not be underestimated.

‘With this book, we pay tribute to the lay and religious people who have contributed to compassionate care, in and around Ghent, always keeping the focus on the patient. It is this Christian tradition that forms the benchmark for our ethical treatment and that supports us in our striving towards value-driven health care. Rarely has the future been so well prepared by the past.’

Prof Pascal Verdonck (Chairman) Maria Middelares General Hospital

Patient-centered care over the years

The book title emphasises the evolution over the years from care for the sick to health care. The patient is the focal point in the ecosystem, surrounded by a transmural and multidisciplinary treatment team. The transition from new technologies to new care strategies is becoming ever shorter. The options for virtual follow-up increases: thanks to a 'cockpit' in the hospital, the patient know that he/she is in safe hands, 24/7. The future-oriented vision explains why Maria Middelares General Hospital chose to have a technological intervention centre as part of its new building in 2015, rather than opting for a 'classic bed hospital'.

Innovation, digitalisation, and the patient experience are inseparable from the care provided at Maria Middelares General Hospital. This greatly honours the past and the values that the founding congregations have gifted us.

A heartfelt 'thank you'

With this book, we would like to give our patients, physicians, colleagues and visitors an insight into how the Maria Middelares General Hospital plans to approach the future, while remaining respectful of where we have come from. As a token of our gratitude and appreciation, each hospital staff member will receive a copy of the book.

‘The commitment of our care professionals has been of inestimable importance, and it will also form the core of the high-quality and safe care that we want to provide each day. Care does not need to be provided only in the hospital.’

Christophe Mouton – CEO Maria Middelares General Hospital

See the AVS broadcast here: