About Us - St John's Hospital

St. John’s is an acute general public Voluntary Hospital. It is a registered charity under the Charities Acts (Registered Charity No. 20000394) and is administered and managed in accordance with a Hospital Constitution approved by the Charities Regulatory Authority. The current Hospital Constitution was approved in 2018. The property is vested in Trustees.

The Hospital has a total of 99 beds – 89 In-patient beds, 10 Day care beds, 7 Medical Assessment Unit bays, 4 Injury Unit bays and 4 Ambulatory Day care beds. The In-Patient specialties are General Medicine, General Surgery and Gynaecology. The hospital also has an Urgent Care Centre incorporating an Injuries Unit and Medical Assessment Unit.

Our Vision

To be a leading provider of healthcare services where innovation and excellence are at the heart of the patient experience.

Values

Compassionate, holistic, loving care, centred around the individual needs of each patient and their family.

Excellence in all we do and continuously seek to improve our services, care and knowledge.

Always our patients come first with our qualified, skilled and dedicated staff who work as a team and succeed because of each other.

Respect the dignity of our patients, colleagues, communities and partners.

History

St. John’s Hospital has a pioneering history. It was founded in 1780 by Lady Hartstonge and other benefactors as a Fever and Lock Hospital, being the first of its kind erected in the empire of Britain. It played a major role in controlling the spread of fever by admitting patients and isolating them from the community. The success of St. John’s in treating fever patients was based on a combination of core principles still applicable to modern day medicine: routine hygienic practice, nourishing food, and the knowledge of Dr John Geary – a prominent local physician of the time, being able to distinguish between different fevers. In 1845, the hospital admitted more than 5000 fever-ridden patients during the outbreak of famine fever in Limerick city and also managed to maintain a relatively low mortality rate during that time. In 1888, the then bishop of Limerick, Bishop Edward Thomas O’Dwyer invited the Nursing Sisters of the Little Company (LCM) to the Hospital. St. John’s was the first site in Ireland where the LCM Nursing Sisters came to work. They led the nursing services of the hospital from 1888 to 2001, when the first lay person was appointed as a Director of Nursing. St. John’s Hospital was the first acute public hospital in Ireland to be accredited under the Irish Health Services Accreditation Board in 2003 and was the only acute hospital to be re-accredited under the scheme in 2007. Since the national reconfiguration of health services into Group in 2013. St. John’s is one of six hospitals in the University of Limerick Hospitals Group. We are proud of our history and tradition since our foundation in providing high quality, compassionate care in a warm and friendly manner to the people of Limerick and its environs. We remain faithful to the mission of our founders and we believe that being a smaller hospital ideally positions us for excellence in person centred care.

Our 5-year Strategy (2022-2027) includes a key business plan for a new in-patient bed block to be built on site, bringing the total number of beds on site to 200. We are working with the HSE to support our business plan by approving funding for the development and resources needed for the additional bed capacity.

Link to St. John’s Hospital Strategic Plan 2022 – 2027:

https://www.stjohnshospital.ie/st-johns-hospital-strategic-launch/

Our Goals

We will invest in our people and their wellbeing to become an employer of choice, attracting and retaining high calibre staff to meet the healthcare needs of the patients we serve in a caring and compassionate culture

Our Patients

Focus on our patients and deliver high quality service
Have the highest degree of respect for one another and value diversity
Take all reasonable steps to ensure that patients in contact with the Hospital are afforded the safest possible environment.

Our Staff

Continuously improve all our services through quality management
Empower employees to make appropriate decisions
Use training, teamwork and open communication to enable all employees to achieve their full potential
Recognise and reward employees’ contributions

Our Business

Involve all our partners in our quality improvement activities
Maintain the highest ethical standards in protecting the public and the environment
Measure the effectiveness of our activities and monitor progress towards achieving our Vision

St. John’s Hospital is a Smoke Free Campus

Patients, staff and visitors are not permitted to smoke in the hospital buildings or on the hospital grounds

As a member of the Health Promoting Hospitals Network, St. John’s Hospital promotes a completely smoke-free environment throughout the entire hospital and grounds. The hospital has a duty to provide a healthy environment and a safe place for patients to be treated.

What we ask of patients who smoke:

Do not smoke while you are in hospital
Do not bring cigarettes into the hospital
Please support our efforts to create a healthy smoke free environment for all who come to the hospital

Smoking cessation counselling/therapy is available and any patient who wishes to avail of this service should inform the Senior Nurse on duty.

Under the Public Health Tobacco Amendment Bill governing smoking in the workplace, smoking is strictly prohibited in all hospital buildings. Patients who leave the hospital grounds to smoke do so at their own risk